Kent State Golden Flashes at Buffalo Bulls Men's Basketball recap: Bulls hold serve at home in 87-70 win

For the second straight game, UB Men's Basketball scored 50 in the second half to run away from a divisional foe, topping Kent State for the second time this season, 87-70.

The win elevates UB to 9-6 in the MAC and thanks to other results from around the conference, back into a multiple-way tie for second in the conference. Currently, they'd slot in second among those four teams, but have a chance to really grab the inside track with a win over Ohio on Saturday.

A big reason for that, though, is tonight's win over the Flashes, giving UB a 2-0 season series win over the visitors. Five Bulls, led by 21 points in 27 minutes from CJ Massinburg, scored in double digits and Buffalo outscored Kent State 49-11 in bench points.

The secondary stats were equally lopsided: Lamonte Bearden, Jarryn Skeete, and Blake Hamilton combined for 16 assists, every Bull other than Christian Pino and Zac DiSalvo had multiple rebounds, and the team matched their season high in blocks with 8.

As they did against Bowling Green, UB took a tight game at half and opened it up with a sizzling second-half performance, racking up a hyperefficient 1.30 points per possession and getting double digits after the break alone from freshmen Massinburg and Nick Perkins. A 14-0 run midway through the half broke things open for UB, with all but a single Jarryn Skeete bucket coming from the young pair. The Golden Flashes would not get closer than eight the rest of the way.

UB hits the road for two of their final three, now, with Saturday's matchup at Ohio the next and most important obstacle in the final stretch.