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Turner Battle

It was a tightly contested game for much of the night with neither team leading by more than six points through the first 34 minutes of the game. A jumper by Phil Goss gave Drexel a 62-54 lead with 5:21 left in the game. The Bulls cut the lead to 62-60, but Drexel calmly regained a five-point advantage on a three-pointer by Goss with 2:30 left in the game.

On the Bulls' next possession, Mark Bortz (Commerce Township, MI/Walled Lake Central) hit a jumper in the paint to cut the lead to 65-62. Following a Drexel turnover, Calvin Cage (Capitol Heights, MD/Bladensburg) knocked down a three-pointer to tie the contest at 65 with 1:25 remaining. Jeremiah King hit an off-balanced jumper to give the Dragons a 67-65 lead with 36 seconds remaining. After the teams traded free throws, the Dragons held a 69-67 lead with nine seconds on the clock. Battle took the inbounds pass, drove the length of the floor, and hit a spinning layup to tie the game and send it to overtime.

Buffalo (23-9) never trailed in overtime. With the Bulls leading, 72-71, Cage drove down the lane and found Bortz with a wrap-around pass that the senior forward slammed home for two. Mario Jordan (Cleveland, OH/Benedictine) made a pair of free throws to extend the UB advantage to 76-72. Two free throws by King cut the lead to 78-76 with 10 seconds left. Cage was immediately fouled. He made the first free throw, but missed the second. However, after Kenell Sanchez grabbed the rebound for Drexel, he fell out of bounds, giving the ball back to the Bulls. Bortz hit a layup with one second remaining to seal the victory for UB.

Mark Bortz

Bortz led the Bulls with 20 points, nine rebounds and three blocked shots. Battle added 19 points, five rebounds and six assists. Jordan also reached double-figures with 12 points and grabbed eight boards. Cage had nine points and added four steals.

Drexel (17-12) was led by King who scored a career-high 25 points. Dominick Mejia and Phil Goss also reached double-figures with 17 and 14 points, respectively.

The Bulls dominated the paint, outscoring the Dragons, 46-26. UB had 10 steals and forced 16 Drexel turnovers. Buffalo did a good job of taking care of the basketball as it had only 10 turnovers. Drexel outrebounded UB, 43-39.

"Old-fashioned passion got us through tonight," head coach Reggie Witherspoon said. "I am just glad that we kept fighting and kept fighting until we could get ourselves into a position to win."

The Bulls will play at St. Joseph's on Saturday night at Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse. Tipoff is slated for 7 pm.