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Yassin Idbihi

BUFFALO, NY ­ The Buffalo men's basketball team beat Northern Illinois, 90-73, in the opening round of the 2004 First Energy Mid-American Conference Tournament on Monday night at Alumni Arena. The largest crowd in Alumni Arena history (8,971) witnessed the Bulls score a season-high 90 points to advance to Cleveland for the first time since joining the conference in 1998. UB will face Toledo in the MAC Tournament quarterfinals on Thursday night at 9 pm at the Gund Arena.

Yassin Idbihi (Tangier, Morocco/Schloss Hagerhof), who was named to the MAC All-Freshman team earlier in the day, played like a seasoned veteran on Monday night. The Bulls' center led UB with a career-high 23 points and grabbed eight rebounds. He scored 15 of his points in the first stanza and helped the Bulls weather a cold shooting spell early on in the first half.

Despite being the number 12 seed, the Huskies were not going to go away quietly. After the Bulls took a 6-3 lead, a dunk by Rome Sanders ignited a 10-2 run that gave Northern Illinois a 15-8 advantage. With 8:34 left in the half, the Huskies increased their lead to 26-18 following a three-pointer by P.J. Smith, who scored 15 of his game-high 28 points in the first half. However, the Bulls scored eight straight points to tie the game, 26-26, with 6:14 left in the half. After Northern Illinois reclaimed a 35-34 lead, the Bulls rattled off nine straight points to take a 43-35 advantage. Buffalo held a 43-38 lead at the half.

Turner Battle

The Bulls scored five unanswered points to open the second half and took a 10-point advantage. The Huskies whittled the UB lead down to four points with 10:30 remaining. However, Calvin Cage (Capital Heights, MD/Bladensburg) answered with a three-pointer to put the Bulls back up by seven points. After Mark Bortz (Commerce Township, MI/Walled Lake Central) slammed home two points, Roderick Middleton (University Park, IL/Marian Catholic) intercepted a pass and threaded a perfect bounce pass ahead to Daniel Gilbert (Detroit, MI/Cass Technical) who jammed home two more points, extending the Bulls' lead to 76-63 with 6:30 left in the game. Northern Illinois wouldn't threaten again and Buffalo would cruise to the 17-point victory.

Northern Illinois (10-20) shot a sizzling 59.6 percent (28-47) from the floor. However, turnovers plagued the Huskies as they coughed up the ball 16 times. The Bulls were able to convert the turnovers into 22 points. Conversely, UB did a tremendous job of taking care of the ball as they had a season-low five turnovers in the game.

Buffalo had five players finish the game in double-figures. Turner Battle (Kernersville, NC/East Forsyth) had 16 points and dished out four assists. Jason Bird (Ypsilanti, MI/Ypsilanti) notched 11 points, including three three-pointers. Cage reached double-figures for the fifth straight game with 15 points. Bortz tallied 10 points and three blocked shots.

Reggie Witherspoon with Mighty Maniacs

The Bulls, who won their eighth straight game, shot 53.8 percent (35-65) from the floor. It marked the fifth game in a row that UB shot better than 50 percent from the field.

"The guys really played well and it was a balanced effort," head coach Reggie Witherspoon said. "I wanted Northern Illinois to feel that they weren't just playing against the five guys that were on the court for UB, I wanted them to feel they were playing against the entire student body."