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Mark Bortz

BUFFALO, NY ­ Turner Battle (Kernersville, NC/East Forsyth) scored a career-high 26 points and Mark Bortz (Commerce Township, MI/Walled Lake Central) added 20 points and 10 rebounds to pace the Buffalo men's basketball team (7-9, 3-5) to an 89-83 win over MAC-foe Akron (9-7, 3-5) at Alumni Arena on Wednesday night. As a team, the Bulls shot a sizzling 63.0 percent from the floor - the third-best single game shooting performance in school history.

Both teams lit it up in the first half with the Bulls shooting 67.9 percent (19-28) and the Zips shooting 64.3 percent (18-28) from the field. Akron was red-hot from beyond the arc as well in the first half, shooting 9-for-11 on three-point attempts. Buffalo answered with five treys of its own. The Bulls took a 14-6 lead on a jumper by Bortz. However, Akron went on an 11-2 run to take a 17-16 lead with 11:57 left in the first half. Buffalo answered right back as Battle hit one of his career-best four three-pointers to put UB up by two. After the Zips took a 31-28 lead with 6:32 remaining in the first half, the Bulls ripped off a 10-0 run to take a 38-31 lead with 4:17 left in the half. However, the three-point shot proved to be lethal for Akron as the Zips drained four treys in the final four minutes of the half to cut the UB advantage to 46-45 at the break.

The Bulls scored six unanswered points, capped by a Battle jumper, to open the second half and regained a seven point advantage. The Bulls would hold the lead until the 11:10 mark when a bucket by Akron's Romeo Travis tied the contest, 61-61. However, a steal and breakaway layup by Mario Jordan (Cleveland, OH/Benedictine) capped a 7-0 run and gave the Bulls a 68-61 lead with 8:47 remaining. A pair of Derrick Tarver free throws cut the UB lead to 72-68 with 6:48 left in the game. However, the Zips would get no closer as the Bulls pulled away for the six-point victory.

Turner Battle

The Bulls dominated the play inside as they outrebounded Akron, 31-17, and scored 46 points in the paint. Yassin Idbihi (Tangier, Morocco/Schloss Hagerhof) also reach double-figures with 11 points. Jason Bird (Ypsilanti, MI/Ypsilanti) and Calvin Cage (Capital Heights, MD/Bladensburg) each scored eight points and drained two three-pointers.

Tarver, the MAC's leading scorer, tallied 20 points for Akron. However, he was held to only six points in the second half. Jeremiah Wood and Rick McFadden scored 16 and 15 points, respectively.

It was the second straight win for the Bulls who scored a season-high 89 points. The Bulls have now scored over 80 points in back-to-back games.

"I give credit to our guys for hanging in there and fighting through until the end of the game defensively until we could cool them off," head coach Reggie Witherspoon said. "They shot the ball great and our guys rebounded the ball great. I thought for the most part we cooled them off in the second half."