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Buffalo Holds Off Ball State in First Round Matchup, 80-72

Calvin Cage

Early on, it looked as if the Bulls were going to run away with the contest as a steal and break-away dunk by Mario Jordan (Cleveland, OH/Benedictine) gave the Bulls a 41-21 lead with 3:40 left in the first half. Calvin Cage (Capitol Heights, MD/Bladensburg) hit his fifth three-pointer of the first half to put the Bulls ahead, 44-25, late in first stanza before settling for a 44-28 lead at the break.

Ball State guard Skip Mills scored a career-high 38 points to single-handedly get the Cardinals back into the game. A Mills' jumper with 11:32 remaining, cut the Buffalo advantage to 52-48 points. The Bulls responded, and after a pair of Jordan free throws, Roderick Middleton (University Park, IL/Marian Catholic) drained back-to-back three-pointers to extend the Buffalo lead to 12.

With the Bulls leading 62-50 with 6:32 left, Ball State made one last charge and a 13-4 scoring run sliced the UB lead to 66-63 with 4:18 remaining. Cage made eight straight free throws to help hold off the Cardinals. With the Bulls ahead, 77-72, with 32 seconds remaining, Yassin Idbihi (Tangier, Morocco/Schloss Hagerhof) put an exclamation point on the victory with a break-away jam.

Mario Jordan

Cage led the Bulls with 30 points and shot 5-for-6 from three-point range. Jordan added 17 points and seven rebounds. Middleton, Idbihi and Parnell Smith (Indianapolis, IN/Pike) each added nine points.

Cage led the Bulls' defensive effort with four of the Bulls' 10 steals. Middleton added three pilfers.

UB outrebounded Ball State, 36-30. The Bulls pulled down 14 offensive boards.

"We played hard and I think our intensity level was pretty high for a pretty long period of time," head coach Reggie Witherspoon said. "We have to now work on keeping our concentration level high as well."

Buffalo (19-12) will play Kent State in at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland on Thursday night at 7:00 pm.