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The Bulls shot a season-low 32.2 percent from the floor and lost 63-57 to Tulsa in the team's final non-conference game of the season.
Xavier Ford, coming in off the bench, was the only Buffalo shooter to hit the 50% mark. Ford went 2-4 from the floor and 3-4 from the charity stripe. Among the starters only McCrea was reasonably close to efficient. McCrea led the team with 22 points and 11 rebounds while shooting eight of eighteen from the floor and six out of seven from the line. It was his third double-double of the season.
The game with Buffalo spoiling its first eight possessions with five missed shots and a trio of turnovers to lead to a 9-0 deficit at the first media timeout. UB fought back to take a respectable lead five minutes into the second.
The teams would trade blows until UB tied up the game at 51 with three minutes to go when UB would take a two and a half minute break wilt Tulsa poured on nine points.
The Bulls will now enter the MAC slate, with defending conference champion Ohio up first for the team. Buffalo will travel to Athens next Wednesday for a 7 pm tip.
Three Point Shot:
1) You hate to call one guy out but..... Auraum Nuiriankh was 2-11 from the floor! That number is a little less ugly when seen through the lens of his 11 rebounds but it's still completely unacceptable for a starter.
2) This team needs an assassin..... We don't have a Rodney Pierce or a Mitchell Watt on this team. Javon McCrea for all his talent is not the guy who takes a close game and steps on the other teams throat. Until he, or someone else, becomes that person UB will be losing a lot of the games.
3) Now that that's over..... This team has improved markedly for the first weeks of the season but after the out of conference slate this is looking like a team that would be lucky to finish fourth in the MAC East, at this point a dead last finish in the division seems possible.