Buffalo Bulls upset West Virginia Mountaineers in overtime

The Buffalo Bulls went into Morgantown looking to make a statement that last March was no fluke.

After a cold shooting start and a big deficit piled up the Bulls and their never quit attitude climbed back into the game, set it to overtime, and eventually prevailed over the West Virginia Mountaineers.

CJ Massinburg was unquestionably the star of the night.

The Buffalo Senior piled up 43 points, including a clutch three to tie the game with 14 seconds left in regulation. In overtime the Bulls held onto the momentum that they built up at the end of the second half and quickly built up a 10-point lead.

West Virginia came out on fire, hitting their first three shots, all taken from behind the arc. Meanwhile the Bulls couldn’t get anything going. But, in typical UB fashion they came out of a timeout, found their footing and took the lead with a Jeremy Harris layup, 17-16.

The teams traded momentum until near the end of the first half, when the Mountaineers took advantage of UB mistakes to build an eight-point lead.

UB was down 12 points, six minutes into the second, the Bulls started to find some consistency but West Virginia was able to keep UB at bay, always able to fend off the Bulls runs and maintaining a 7-10 point lead.

It wasn’t until the seven-minute mark that the Bulls’ defensive pressure started to wear on WVU.

With a minute left UB closed to within two when Jeremy Harris missed an open three-point look and the game seemed to be slipping way. However, CJ Buckets and the Bulls, would not be denied.

With 15 seconds left Massinburg tied the game at 84 and the Bulls stopped the mountaineers from hitting a last second shot to win.

Overtime was all UB. After the teams traded points in the first 40 seconds UB went on a nine-point run building a 95-86-point lead at the 1:48 minute mark.

From there UB ran the clock on every possession.

With the win UB is 2-0 and travels to SIU for a game on Monday night. West Virginia is 0-1 and will try to get back on track against Monmouth on the 15th.