Binghamton Bearcats at Buffalo Bulls Men's Basketball Recap: CJ Massinburg sparks Bulls in 80-64 win

Sometimes it only takes one player to jumpstart a team.

In today's 80-64 UB win over Binghamton, it was freshman CJ Massinburg, who scored 11 points in 90 seconds to pull the Bulls out of a 15-11 hole, 4-13 opening slump, and three minutes of scorelessness. Buffalo's first ever Texan, who's scored in buckets at times this season, led his team in scoring with 17 points, but the entire 'second string' of Massinburg, Rodell Wigginton, David Kadiri, and Blake Hamilton chipped in across the stat sheet to turn a sluggish opening into a comfortable lead late in the half.

The momentum continued in the second half with an early 11-0 run over 3:13 that built the Bulls lead to 17, enough to survive the volume shooting of the Bearcats' Marlon Beck II, who finished with 24 points on 6-13 from distance.

After Massinburg's fiery stretch, no one Bull carried the load, with CJ, Lamonte Bearden, Jarryn Skeete, and Willie Conner all finishing in double digits. Wigginton pulling down 10 rebounds while Hamilton had 8 points, 9 rebounds, 8 assists, and 4 steals. Bearden in particular in the second half sparked the Alumni Arena crowd with a number of circus-style layups each time Binghamton threatened to get closer than six points.

On the whole, each Bull scored at least 3 points as Buffalo turned 15 Bearcat turnovers into 23 points while committing only nine themselves. UB scored 44 points in the paint and got 35 from their bench in the impressive show of balanced offense.

The Bulls move back to 5-5 with the win, and remain at home for their next game, though with a weeklong break before taking on Montana State next Saturday in Alumni Arena.