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Mario Jordan

TERRE HAUTE, IN ­ Buffalo utilized one of its finest defensive efforts of the season to top Indiana State, 64-51, in the ESPN Bracket Buster game at the Hulman Center on Saturday afternoon. The Bulls held the Sycamores to 11 first-half points and had 12 steals and forced 20 turnovers in the game.

Mario Jordan (Cleveland, OH/Benedictine) led the Bulls with 19 points and six rebounds. Yassin Idbihi (Tangier Morocco/Schloss Hagerhof) also reached double-figures with 10 points and added a team-high eight rebounds. Daniel Gilbert (Detroit, MI/Cass Technical) led UB's defensive effort with five steals.

Four of the Bulls' first six buckets were of the three-point variety. A triple by Turner Battle (Kernersville, NC/East Forsyth) gave the Bulls a 16-5 lead with 13:43 left in the first half and the UB lead did not dip below double-figures for the rest of the game. Defensively, Buffalo (12-11) had eight steals, forced 13 turnovers and held the Sycamores to 22.7 percent shooting and only five field goals in the first half. The Bulls kept Indiana State off the scoreboard for the final 7:14 of the first half and held a 32-11 lead at the break.

Indiana State (8-16) crept back into the game in the second half and cut the UB lead to 52-40 with 6:53 remaining. However, Jason Bird (Ypsilanti, MI/Ypsilanti) knocked down an off-balanced jumper in the lane to put the Bulls back up by 14 and silence the Sycamore threat. Battle, Jordan and Calvin Cage (Capital Heights, MD/Bladensburg) each drained a pair of free throws down the stretch to help seal the victory for Buffalo. Cage scored all eight of his points in second stanza.

Daniel Gilbert

It was the Bulls' third straight win and seventh win in their last nine games. It was UB's 12th win of the season, tying its highest overall win total since joining the MAC in 1998.

Indiana State was led by Ted Morris who scored 13 points. David Moss added 12 points for the Sycamores. Indiana State did outrebound the Bulls, 38-35, marking only the second time in the last eight games that the Bulls were outrebounded by their opponent.

"We came out and really established what we were going to do defensively and I think it threw them off their rhythm a little bit," head coach Reggie Witherspoon said. "We wanted to make it as difficult as we could for them to catch the ball in positions where they could score."