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Turner Battle

TEANECK, NJ - The Buffalo men's basketball team had its five-game winning streak snapped with a 79-64 loss to Fairleigh Dickinson in Teaneck, NJ on Monday night. The Bulls got off to a sluggish start and never recovered as they finish the non-conference schedule 5-4.

Fairleigh Dickinson (4-4) started the game on a 9-0 run aided by three-consecutive three-pointers. A layup by Yassin Idbihi (Tangier, Morocco/Schloss Hagerhof) cut the Knights' lead to 9-6. However, that was as close as the Bulls would get as UB struggled to make shots and had 14 first-half turnovers.

Brian Andre (Bingham, ME/Valley) was a bright spot for the Bulls in the first half as the freshman forward rattled off six-straight points to establish a new career high. A pair of Mario Jordan (Cleveland, OH/Benedictine) free throws cut the lead to 25-16 with 3:40 left in the half. However, the Bulls wouldn't score again in the opening stanza and allowed the Knights to take a 35-16 lead at halftime. Fairleigh Dickinson played stellar defense in the first half as it blocked nine shots and had seven steals.

Fairleigh Dickinson extended its lead to 54-29 with 10:26 remaining in the game. The Bulls then tried to mount a furious comeback as they went on a 16-2 scoring run to cut the lead to 56-45 with 5:48 left in the contest. A key component to the Bulls' comeback effort was the play of Marcus Henderson (Niagara Falls, NY/Niagara Falls). The freshman guard pestered the Fairleigh Dickinson guards, forcing them to turn the ball over and he also scored the first two points of his career. However, it was all for naught as the Bulls would get no closer than 11 points.

UB was led by Turner Battle (Kernersville, NC/East Forsyth) who scored 16 points - all in the second half. The junior point guard was whistled for two early fouls, forcing him to sit the bench for much of the first stanza. Calvin Cage (Capital Heights, MD/Bladensburg) also reached double-figures with 12 points. Mark Bortz (Commerce Township, MI/Walled Lake Central), Battle and Jordan all finished with a game-high eight rebounds as the Bulls won the battle of the glass, 36-34.

It was a struggle for the Bulls as they turned the ball over a season-high 22 times and shot 35.1 percent (20-57) from the floor.

Fairleigh Dickinson was led by Gordan Klaiber who had 21 points and six blocked shots. Gadi Buch added 18 points for the Knights who shot 53.2 percent (25-47) from the floor as a team.

"I can't think of one thing that we did well tonight," head coach Reggie Witherspoon said. "We needed a game like this because sometimes kids will say its okay we still won - but it's not. At some point you're going to get beat and that happened tonight."

Buffalo will next play at Toledo on Jan. 3 as the conference slate goes into full swing.