Eastern Michigan Eagles at Buffalo Bulls Men's Basketball recap: Bulls come back, pull away late in 80-70 home win

Buffalo fans will be glad to hear that regular-season matchups against Eastern Michigan are done and over with this year, but if you missed this one, go watch the last four minutes on ESPN3 as soon as you can.

Down 15 just six and a half minutes into the game, it took UB until the final media timeout to pull back even, though they were within two possessions for long portions of the second half. The final four minutes, though, saw the Bulls use a 14-6 run to claim 80-70 win.

Though the point total was substantially lower than EMU's output lately, both teams flashed balanced production from their lineup. The Eagles' star freshman James Thompson IV led everyone with 18 points, 12 rebounds, and four blocks while three different Bulls hit 12 points.

As time wound down and the Bulls took a slim lead in the final minutes, UB won the battle of attrition as Brandon Nazione and Ty Toney fouled out on consecutive possessions. The Eagles used only eight players throughout and were down to six for the final two minutes, while Buffalo weathered their fouls with less issue.

The end result was a ten-point win that frankly could have been quite a bit worse if the Bulls hadn't missed a number of free throws late, but even those only came after UB had built a multiple-possession lead. For much of the game UB not only earned free throws from the EMU defense, but converted them at over an 80% clip.

UB stays at home next week for a Tuesday game against Toledo, whom the Bulls beat just a week ago. It's safe to assume the Rockets will put up a better fight than they did early against UB in Savage Arena.