BUFFALO, NY - Marshall University clinched a first-round bye in the Mid-American Conference tournament and overcame a gritty performance by the University at Buffalo in an 86-73 men's basketball victory at Buffalo's Alumni Arena.

The Thundering Herd got 27 points off the bench from Joda Burgess ­ including a career-best eight three-point field goals ­and connected on 19-of-21 free throws in the second half to overcome a ten-point halftime deficit.

Marshall (18-8, 12-6 in the MAC) never led until Tamar Slay, who was held to 14 points on 4-of-10 shooting, hit a pair of free throws with 6:16 left. The Bulls (4-23, 2-16) never regained the lead after that as Marshall clinched the game at the foul line by making 11 straight free throws in the final six minutes.

Buffalo will play at Ohio University in the first round of the First Energy Mid-American Conference tournament on Monday evening at 7:30 pm. The Bulls and Bobcats just played less than two weeks ago with Ohio claiming a hard-fought 85-75 win. The Ohio-Buffalo winner will play the winner of the Toledo-Eastern Michigan contest at 2 pm on Thursday afternoon at the Gund Arena in Cleveland.

The Bulls played great first-half defense and connected on 52% of their shots to go to intermission with a 41-31 lead. Senior Damien Foster (Buffalo, NY/Traditional), playing in his final game at Alumni Arena, scored eight of his 14 points in the first half while junior Robert Brown (Oak Park, MI/Oak Park) had 13 of his 16 points before the break. The lead might have been more if not for Burgess hitting 5-of-7 trifectas en route to 18 first-half points.

"We knew it was going to be a dogfight," said Burgess, "because Buffalo had nothing to lose. I was getting wide open looks off of screens and once I made my first few I got on a roll."

"Burgess got hot and even with good defense he can make shots once he hits a few," said UB head coach Reggie Witherspoon. "It's just rhythm and timing at that point, he doesn't even need to see the basket."

In the second half, the Bulls extended the lead to as many as 11 (52-41) when junior Jason Robinson (Seattle, WA/Curtis) ­ who had a career-high 26 points on 8-of-12 shooting ­hit a three pointer. Buffalo still led 62-56 on another Robinson jumper before the Herd 10-3 run to gain their first lead of the game at 66-65. Burgess had two more treys during that run and once Marshall got over the top, their free throw shooting kept them there. Buffalo was whistled for 15 fouls after intermission and the Herd made them pay for it.

"When you have less turnovers and more rebounds and you lose, well, I'm still trying to figure that out, " said Witherspoon. "Especially when it doesn't come down to a last possession."

"We were gambling with Joda a little bit because he had four fouls but when he's shooting like that you take that gamble. Give Buffalo a lot of credit, they're scratching and clawing. I did not want to face these guys again on Monday (which would have occurred had Buffalo won)," said Marshall coach Greg White.