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B.J. Walker

ATHENS, OH ­ It was a tough afternoon for the Bulls who dropped a 61-49 decision to Ohio on Saturday in Athens, OH. It wasn't a pretty game as neither team shot the ball particularly well and the schools combined for 48 fouls and 30 turnovers. But is was the Bobcats who won the free throw battle and hit some key buckets late in the contest to pull away for the victory.

"It wasn't a real pretty game," Head Coach Reggie Witherspoon said. "But Ohio certainly did more to win it than we did."

Ohio (7-11, 4-6) led the game from wire-to-wire, but the Bulls were close behind for much of the contest. In the first half, Ohio held the Bulls to only four points in the game's first eight minutes. However, the Bulls did an effective job on the defensive end to keep the Bobcats in their sights and trailed by only six points at halftime.

UB opened the second half with a B.J. Walker (Cincinnati, OH/Mt. Healthy) jumper to cut the lead to four. But the Buffalo shooting woes continued early in the second stanza, enabling the Bobcats to go on a 9-1 scoring run and take a 37-25 lead. Calvin Cage (Bowie, MD/Bladensburg) drained a three-pointer to cut the Ohio advantage to 37-30 with 13:46 remaining. However, the Bulls would get no closer as Ohio held on for the victory.

The Bulls held Ohio to 39.2 percent (20-51) shooting from the floor and a season-low 17.6 shooting percentage (3-17) from beyond the arc and 51.4 percent (18-35) from the free throw line. However, the Bulls had their own struggles from the field, shooting a season-low 29.8 percent (17-57) from the floor. For the second game in a row, UB struggled from the three-point line, shooting 2-of-15 (13.3 percent) from beyond the arc. The Bulls' second three-pointer was a heave from half court by Jason Bird (Ypsilanti, MI/Ypsilanti) that hit nothing but net as time expired.

The key to Ohio's success was the play of Brandon Hunter. The Mid-American Conference's leading rebounder grabbed a game-high 20 rebounds to go along with 16 points. He also went to the free throw line 20 times, but was only able to connect on eight. His strong play in the post kept Buffalo's frontcourt in foul trouble for much of the game. "Our post players got in foul trouble early and as a result we started to play more and more tentatively," Witherspoon said. Steve Esterkamp led the Bobcats with 17 points.

Buffalo (3-16, 0-10) was led by Turner Battle (Kernersville, NC/East Forsyth) who scored 11 points, marking the 10th straight time that the sophomore point guard has reached double-figures in the scoring column. Walker added 10 points and grabbed a team-high seven rebounds.

UB won the battle of the glass, outrebounding Ohio 45-41. The Bulls also had two more steals and two more second chance points than the Bobcats.

The Bulls, who remain winless on the road this season, will play four of their next five games in the friendly confines of Alumni Arena.