MAC Tournament - Buffalo falls to Kent in the Quarter Finals

Kent flew out of the Gate and Buffalo's shooting was ice cold. Still scrappy play by the Bulls defense kept Buffalo from falling too far behind. Kent State built a 17-11 lead at the 10:16 mark in the half, and then things went from bad to worse when Javon McCrea was hit with his second foul with 7:33 left to play. Buffalo was forced to play the rest of the half without their best player on the court.

At that point Buffalos shooting finally came to life and the Bulls surged with a 14-6 run eventually building a 31-25 lead at the 2:32 mark. Then the Bulls late half play kicked in and Kent finished the hlaf on a four to one run. Buffalo limped into the half with a 32-30 lead.

Will Regan come out of the half and scored six points in the first 60 seconds of play. The eight point lead was the largest UB would have and right after UB cooled right off which left Kent crawl back into the contest.

After trading leads, the game was tied at 60 with three and a half minuts to play. Regan made one of two free throws, and Kent State then answered with a pair of free throw on its next possession. Evans put the team on his back over the final 2:20 of the game, scoring six of the team’s final eight points of the game. His layup at the 1:21 mark gave KSU a 66-61 lead, but Auraum Nuiriankh hit his lone three of the game to make it a one-possession game again.

With 54 seconds left, the Bulls defense tried to play out a possession but were whistled for a foul with just two seconds left on the shot clock and 21 seconds left in the game. After two more free throws to make it a 68-64 game, Watson took the ball the length of the floor for a quick layup that left just seven seconds on the clock. Two more free throws from the Flashes would seal it, as Watson’s coast-to-coast lay in to follow it up would come as the clock expired.

Three Point Shot

Point 1 - Thank You Tony Watson. Tony Watson finished his senior season with 23 points, 11 rebounds, and five assists to lead UB. Over the course of the year Watson developed into a key component of the team and one of UB's more versatile players.

Point 2 - Worst Three Minutes of the day. Is the last three MInutes of a UB basketball game. If I find time I'm going to do a summary of every final six minutes of play and if my gut is right it's going to show UB on the wrong side of the ledger pretty much every game.

Point 3 - The Clock on Witherspoon. The only key player UB is losing this year is Tony Watson and the Bulls will get Jarod Oldham and Stan Wier back. I don't see UB having that strong a roster for a bit, if the Bulls cant go dancing with that cast it's time to sart sking hard Questions.