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ATHENS, OH - The University at Buffalo men's basketball team fought hard but couldn't keep up with the Ohio Bobcats, falling 86-71 Monday evening in Mid-American Conference action.

UB scored the first bucket of the game on a jumper by Nikolai Alexeev (Minsk. Belarus). Momentum went back and forth throughout the half as Ohio pulled ahead by five, 12-7, early in the game. UB used two-straight three-pointers from Alexei Vasiliev (St. Petersburg, Russia) to take a 13-12 lead at the 12:31 mark. Ohio responded with a 9-0 run to take the lead back. The Bulls eventually chipped away at the Bobcat lead, cutting it to just two points, 29-27, on an Alexeev jumper with under two minutes to play in the half. The Bobcats then closed the half with a 5-0 run to take a 34-27 lead going into halftime.

In the second half, Ohio gradually built their lead up to 11 points, 48-37, with 14 minutes to play. Louis Campbell (Rahway, NJ/Rahway) responded with a three-pointer and a Mike McKie (Brooklyn, NY/Tilden) dunk cut the lead back to six points, 48-42, with 13 minutes left. Ohio pushed the lead back to 12, 57-45, at the 10:11 mark and built up as much as a 17 point lead, 73-56, with 4:37 to play. UB wouldn't go away easy. Mike McKie had a reverse dunk and Louis Campbell hit a jumper, then converted a three-point play to cut the lead to 11 points, 74-63, but that was as close as the Bulls would get. Ohio used a strong rebounding effort, collecting 22 offensive boards, to hold on for an 86-71 win.

Four players scored in double figures for UB (3-13, 1-6), led by Nikolai Alexeev with 16 points and Alexei Vasiliev with 15 points and a team-high five rebounds and five steals. Louis Campbell had 14 points and five assists and Mike McKie had 10 points, six coming on three monstrous dunks. Ohio (10-8, 3-3) was led by Dustin Ford with a game-high 20 points, including 6-of-8 from three-point range, and Brandon Hunter with 18 points and 10 rebounds.