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Bowling Green, OH ­ Junior Clement Smith (Brooklyn, NY/Westinghouse) scored a career-high 21 points on 6-of-10 shooting from the field and 9-of-10 from the line but the University at Buffalo Bulls dropped a 73-58 road decision to Bowling Green at Anderson Arena on Wednesday night.

The Bulls finish the regular season at 12-17 overall and 7-11 in the Mid-American Conference. The loss, coupled with a Northern Illinois upset at Ball State, insures the Bulls of a first-round MAC Tournament road game on March 4. Buffalo will either travel to NIU, Marshall or Western Michigan, depending on the outcome of Saturday's remaining MAC games.

Clement Smith

Smith, who was held scoreless in his last outing on Monday night to break a string of 32 straight games with at least one point, surpassed his previous career-best of 15 points set against Kent State earlier this year. The 6-8 center also grabbed seven rebounds in 24 minutes off the bench.

The Falcons went ahead for good (12-10) with 15:20 to play on a basket by Brent Klassen. That started a 13-4 run that ended on a layup by Germain Fitch, giving Bowling Green a 25-14 lead with 8:17 to play. Bowling Green led 39-22 at halftime and was up by as much as 65-41 with 7:34 left.

Buffalo's four freshmen saw significant action in the game, combining for 98 minutes. Freshman Turner Battle (Kernersville, NC/East Forsyth) led the four first-year Bulls with 11 points. Jason Bird (Ypsilanti, MI/Ypsilanti) had seven points, Mark Bortz (Commerce Township, MI/Walled Lake Central) collected four points and Daniel Gilbert (Detroit, MI/Cass Technical) added three points while playing strong defensively.

"Our freshmen really fought hard in the second half and closed the gap," said Buffalo coach Reggie Witherspoon. "The four freshman along with Clement Smith really fought and scrapped and actually caused some problems for this Bowling Green team. That's encouraging. We're not shocked by it, though, because it does happen in practice."

Senior leading scorer Darcel Williams (Buffalo, NY/Traditional) was held to four points on 2-of-11 shooting and UB's fourth all-time leading scorer, senior Louis Campbell (Rahway, NJ/Rahway), scored just two points and grabbed four rebounds.

Buffalo shot 32 percent (18-of-56) from the field and 84 percent (21-of-25) from the line. Bowling Green hit 52 percent of its shots from the field and 71 percent at the line (22-of-31).

UB's seven MAC wins this season were more conference victories than they had in the previous three years when Buffalo went just 6-48. In addition, the 12 overall wins this season were the most since Buffalo joined the MAC and the most since the 1997-98 season when UB posted a 15-13 overall mark in its last year in the Mid-Continent Conference.