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Balanced Bulls Bounce Central Michigan, 73-59

Mario Jordan

In an effort to shake things up, head coach Reggie Witherspoon retooled his starting lineup to include first-time starters Eric Moore (Morristown, NJ/St. Benedict’s Prep), Andy Robinson (Schenectady, NY/Schenectady) and Christian Schmidt (Chemnitz, Germany/Schloss Hagerhof) to go along with Greg Gamble (Niagara Falls, NY/Niagara Falls) and Yassin Idbihi (Tangier, Morocco/Schloss Hagerhof).

The Bulls fell behind early, 8-3, before Witherspoon replaced four of the starters with a more familiar lineup. Buffalo proceeded to mount a 17-7 scoring run to take a 20-15 lead with 9:36 left in the first half. Calvin Cage (Capitol Heights, MD/Bladensburg) hit two of his four first-half three-pointers on consecutive UB possessions to give the Bulls a 35-20 lead with 3:44 remaining in the half. Buffalo led, 39-26, at the half.

Buffalo (16-8, 6-7 MAC) led, 47-34, before the Chippewas scored six unanswered points to cut the UB advantage to 47-40 with 11:24 remaining. With the Bulls leading 54-44, Sean Smiley (Erie, PA/McDowell) hit back-to-back three-pointers to extend the UB lead to 16 points with 7:04 left. Smiley finished with 10 points, three rebounds, an assist and a steal in a career-high 20 minutes.

Mario Jordan (Cleveland, OH/Benedictine) put the game on ice with a steal and break-away slam to give the Bulls a 67-52 lead with 3:37 remaining.

Sean Smiley

Smiley was one of five UB players to score in double-figures. Cage led the Bulls with 17 points and Jordan added 16. Roderick Middleton (University Park, IL/Marian Catholic) notched 12 points, including a pair of three-pointers. Idbihi recorded his second straight double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds. Although he didn’t score, Moore tallied three assists and three steals in only 15 minutes.

The Bulls shot the ball well from the perimeter – tying a season-high with 10 three-pointers, including seven in the first half. The Bulls also played solid defense as they tied a season high with 12 steals and forced 20 turnovers. Buffalo outrebounded Central Michigan, 37- 28, including 15 offensive boards and scored 21 second chance points.

Central Michigan (3-18, 1-12 MAC) was led by Sefton Barrett who scored a game-high 24 points and grabbed nine rebounds. Giordan Watson added 15 points for the Chippewas.

“We didn’t change and put different starters in because we were losing,” Witherspoon said. “We wanted to better our play and we wanted to be able to play harder for longer periods of time. So before the game we talked about just playing harder and if we do that we will get better.”

Buffalo will return home to host Kent State on Wednesday night at Alumni Arena. Tip-off is slated for 7:00 pm.