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BUFFALO, NY - The Buffalo men's basketball team lost its sixth-straight game, falling 58-52 to visiting Kent State. The Bulls committed 19 turnovers in the game and hit a season-low three three-pointers while being outscored 28-17 from the free throw line.

The Bulls trailed by four at the half, and came out looking to cut into that deficit right away. Damien Foster (Buffalo, NY/Traditional) hit a three-pointer to cut the lead to one, 29-28, less than two minutes into the second half. After a Kent State free throw, Maliso Libomi (Malikoff, France) hit a jumper to tie the game at 30-30 with 15:43 to play. The teams exchanged buckets on consecutive possessions before Robert Brown (Oak Park, MI/Oak Park) hit two free throws to give the Bulls a 34-32 lead with 13 minutes to play. Kent State then took control of the game with a 15-4 run over the next seven minutes for the game's largest lead at 49-38 with 6:24 remaining. During that run for the Golden Flashes, Trevor Huffman scored six points and Andrew Mitchell capped off the run with a three-pointer.

The Bulls fought back and a Gabe Cagwin (Belfair, WA/North Mason) three-pointer ignited a 10-3 run by the Bulls to cut into the Kent State lead. Robert Brown then scored the next six for UB points and a Clement Smith (Brooklyn, NY/Westinghouse) made it 52-48, with 1:28 to play. With the Kent State lead cut to just four points, Andrew Mitchell was fouled on a missed three-point attempt, and hit the three free throws to push the lead back to seven points, 55-48, with under a minute to play. The Bulls would get not closer the rest of the way as Kent State held on for the 58-52 win.

The first half saw each team start off cold, as UB jumped out to a 9-2 lead. The Bulls defense held Kent State to just two free throws in the first nine minutes of the game as the Golden Flashes did not score their first field goal until the 10:59 mark. The Bulls would continue to play tough defense, and held on to a ten-point lead, 22-12, with 7:10 left in the half. Kent State would then use a 17-3 run to end the half and take a 29-25 lead into halftime.

"It's frustrating when there isn't any defensive pressure and you turn the ball over by just throwing the ball away. We had 19 turnovers and many of those were unforced," said UB head coach Reggie Witherspoon. "Neither team shot the ball well, but we knew it would be a battle. We didn't establish ourselves around the basket to free up our perimeter shooters and that made us hesitant on offense and they got more aggressive defensively from that."

Turnovers were a key to the game as UB committed 19, six coming on offensive fouls, to Kent State's nine. The Golden Flashes also made a living at the free throw line, hitting twice as many free throws (28) as field goals (14). Kent State finished the game 28-of-31 from the line while UB finished 17-of-22 from the line.

Robert Brown led the Bulls with a game-high 18 points as the only UB player in double figures and Davis Lawrence (Brooklyn, NY/New Utrecht) had a game and career-high eight rebounds on the night. Andrew Mitchell led Kent State with 17 points and Trevor Huffman added 16.

Buffalo falls to 2-11 on the season and 0-6 in the Mid-American Conference while Kent State improves to 11-5 overall and 4-1 in the MAC. UB will hit the road for its next two games, beginning this Saturday at Miami with a 7 pm tipoff.