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Bulls Roll Bowling Green in Home Finale, 96-50

Greg Gamble

BUFFALO, NY – The University at Buffalo men's basketball team closed out the home portion of its schedule in style by routing Bowling Green, 96-50, at Alumni Arena on Tuesday night. All 12 players scored and grabbed at least two rebounds in the Bulls' most decisive victory over a Mid-American Conference opponent since joining the league in 1998.

After Bowling Green opened the scoring on a layup by Chris Knight, the Bulls ripped off eight straight points, capped by a Greg Gamble (Niagara Falls, NY/Niagara Falls) jumper, to take an 8-2 lead and never looked back. With the Bulls leading 8-6, they mounted a 25-3 scoring run to take a 33-9 lead midway through the first half.

Buffalo kept pouring it on in the first half and a Byron Mulkey (Wheatfield, NY/Niagara Wheatfield) jumper upped the UB advantage to 50-18 with 2:48 left in the first stanza. The Bulls held a 52-26 lead at the break. It was the Bulls' highest first half scoring output of the season.

It was much of the same in the second half as Buffalo built its lead to as many as 48 points, before settling for the 46-point victory.

Gamble led the Bulls in scoring for the second straight game with 23 points on 8-of-10 shooting. Andy Robinson (Schenectady, NY/Schenectady) came off the bench for the first time this season and added 18 points. Playing in the final home game of his career, senior Christian Schmidt (Chemnitz, Germany/Schloss Hagerhof) got the start in Robinson's place and finished with three points and two rebounds in eight minutes.

Jawaan Alston (Uniontown, PA/Albert Gallatin) continued to improve on his freshman campaign as he scored a career-high 13 points to go along with six rebounds and a pair of blocked shots.

Sean Smiley (Erie, PA/McDowell) added nine points and Mulkey and Calvin Betts (Rochester, NY/Rush-Henrietta) each chipped in with eight.

John Boyer (Hollidaysburg, PA/Hollidaysburg) proved to be a spark for the Bulls for the second straight game. The sophomore point guard had five assists, four rebounds and a pair of steals in only 18 minutes.

John Boyer

Buffalo outrebounded Bowling Green, 48-34. Brian Addison (Queens, NY/Andrew Jackson) pulled down seven rebounds to lead UB.

As impressive as the Bulls' offensive display was, their defensive effort was equally imposing. UB had 13 steals, led by Mulkey's career-best four, five blocked shots and forced 21 Bowling Green turnovers. Buffalo scored 31 points off those turnovers.

"Because we scored 96 points, it probably will overshadow the fact that we played pretty good defense," head coach Reggie Witherspoon said. "We made it difficult for them and by doing that they couldn't play as much zone - they had to play man to man.

"Our post players did a very good job of running the floor. It made it a little bit more difficult for them. Like us, they are one of the younger teams, so I think it was important for us to come out and play hard and play well."

The 46-point victory was the Bulls' largest margin of victory since defeating Mercy, 97-50, in 1990.

Buffalo will close out the regular season at Ohio on Sunday afternoon. Tipoff is slated for 2 pm.