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Javon McCrea had 22 points and pulled down 10 rebounds but his double double was not enough to get Buffalo (8-14, 3-5) past their own sloppy play as Western Michigan put down Buffalo 71-60 Saturday night in Kalamazoo.
With the 22 points, McCrea moved into a tie with Rodney Pierce (2007-10) for the 13th most career points in program history. His 10 rebounds also gave him exactly 600 for his career, making him just the sixth Bull ever to do so.
The teams traded runs throughout the first 30 minutes of the game but Buffalo fell faded down the stretch right after Tony Watson hit a pair of free throws mid-way through the second making the score 43-42.
The Bronco's shook off a slow start with a balanced attack Darius Paul had 15 points and eight rebounds, David Brown chipped in with 13 and Western Michigan (14-7, 6-2 Mid-American) out-rebounded the Bulls 40-30 despite being out rebounded in the first half.
Three Point Shot: You have to do the little things
I'm not going to complain about the fouls because the refs were just terrible
Point 1) Turnovers
These 20 turnover game have to stop. It's one thing if you're playing a team who excels at creating them but the Bronco's are a positively average team at taking the ball away.
UB lost the ball on bad inbounding, players stepping on the line, and poor passes. Then there were the travels. It's really a minor miracle that UB was still in this game.
Point 2) Time to practice at the line
At one point UB was down just four and shooting under 50% from the line (4/10). If they were shooting anywhere near their average they have f six more points in this game and are in striking distance during the closing moments.
Point 3) Rebounding
The Big difference late was rebouning. At one point Western Michigan got two straight rebounds on missed free throws. That is totally unacceptable.