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Turner Battle

The Bulls got off to a sluggish start and fell behind by as many as 11 points in the first half. While most of the UB players struggled offensively in the first stanza, Turner Battle (Kernersville, NC/East Forsyth) stepped up his game and scored 18 of the Bulls' 34 first-half points. However, UB trailed 43-34 at the break.

Buffalo (16-7, 9-6 MAC) outscored Kent State, 15-5, to open the second half, capped by a Calvin Cage (Capitol Heights, MD/Bladensburg) three-pointer, to take a 51-48 lead with 12:59 remaining. The lead would see-saw until a half-court pass from Battle found Mario Jordan (Cleveland, OH/Benedictine) alone under the basket for a layup to give the Bulls the lead for good at 65-64 with 4:47 remaining. Following a Kent State turnover, Yassin Idbihi (Tangier, Morocco/Schloss Hagerhof) drained a three-pointer from the top of the key to extend the UB lead to 68-64 with 3:46 left. The Bulls shot 7-for-8 from the free throw line in the final three minutes to ice the game.

Battle finished the night with a game-high 22 points and added five rebounds and five assists. Mark Bortz (Commerce Township, MI/Walled Lake Central) added 13 points and Cage and Daniel Gilbert (Detroit, MI/Cass Technical) each tallied 12 points. All of Cage's points came in the second half thanks in part to three three-pointers.

Both teams shot the ball well from the floor as UB shot 57.4 percent and Kent State shot 54.0 percent. However, the Bulls' sizzling 72.2 percent (13-for-18) shooting in the second half was the difference in the game.

Kent State (16-9, 8-6 MAC) was led by Jay Youngblood who scored 15 points. Kevin Warzynski added 14 points.

UB scored 25 of its points off of 19 Kent State turnovers. Buffalo outrebounded the Golden Flashes, 25-20.

"At the beginning, we were playing like it was the first round of a fight and we were feeling our way out and they were going for a knockout in the first round," head coach Reggie Witherspoon said. "We needed to be aggressive and I thought we couldn't even access what we wanted to do until we started playing as hard as we could."

Up next for the Bulls is a trip to Fresno State to face the Bulldogs in an ESPN Bracket Buster showdown on Saturday. Tipoff is slated for 7 pm (EST).