BUFFALO 129, SUNY-CANTON 62
YOUNGSTOWN STATE 76, CENTRAL MICHIGAN 65
OHIO 95, DELAWARE 76
BALL STATE 58, GEORGIA SOUTHERN 54
KALAMAZOO, Mich. – Western Michigan redshirt junior forward Markeese Hastings tied his career high with 18 rebounds as the Broncos earned a wire-to-wire victory over Siena Heights, 61-41, on Wednesday afternoon at University Arena.
Hastings’ 18 rebounds equaled his career high from last season’s MAC opener at Toledo. The 18 boards are the most by any player in the Mid-American Conference in a single game thus far in 2022-23.
Owen Lobsinger led Western Michigan (4-8) in scoring in the contest, as the sophomore netted a career-high 12 points off of the bench. Lamar Norman Jr. was also in double-figures for the Broncos with 10.
The Western Michigan defense was locked in from the opening tip on Wednesday, as it held Siena Heights off of the scoreboard for more than five minutes to start the game. The visitors managed just two points in the first half of the opening period, as the Broncos got out to a 15-2 start.
The Saints briefly worked the margin into single-digits, 17-8, but WMU scored the final 10 points of the half to take a 27-8 advantage into the locker room. Western Michigan kept SHU off of the scoreboard for the final 7:28 of the first half. The Bronco defense held Siena Heights to 3-of-32 shooting (9.4 percent) in the opening stanza, and the eight points allowed were the fewest given up by Western Michigan in a half this season.
A Tray Maddox Jr. three-pointer at the 18:26 mark of the second half boosted Western Michigan’s lead to 20 for the first time, 30-10. From there, WMU’s lead fluctuated between 15 and 20 points until a six-point burst brought the Saints to within 13, 49-36, with seven-and-a-half minutes to play.
The Broncos answered with the next five points on a Titus Wright dunk and a Norman triple, and led by 16 or more for the rest of the afternoon.
Western Michigan shot 23-of-59 (39.0 percent) for the afternoon and knocked down nine three-pointers. The WMU defense held Siena Heights to 14-of-55 (25.5 percent) from the floor and 1-for-17 (5.9 percent) from beyond the three-point line. SHU’s 41 points, 14 made field goals, 25.5 field goal percentage, one made three-pointer and 5.9 three-point percentage were all season lows allowed by the Bronco defense.
The Broncos won the rebounding battle for the fourth consecutive game, as they outrebounded Siena Heights 50-33 for the afternoon. Western Michigan’s 50 rebounds and 17 offensive rebounds were both one short of the team’s season high.
BUFFALO, N.Y. – The Buffalo Bulls (6-6, 0-0 MAC) defeated the SUNY Canton Kangaroos (2-11, 1-3 NAC) on Wednesday evening, 129-62. In the win, all 11 Bulls scored in the contest. Leading the way was Devin Ceaser who scored a career-high 25 points, finishing 11-of-14 from the floor. Seven Bulls reached double-figures in the game.
A few program records were set at Alumni Arena as the 129 points scored by the Bulls is now the most scored in a single game. The previous best of 120 came against St. Anselm in the 1987-88 season. Buffalo's 50 made field goals broke the previous record of 49 against Rochester (1973-74). Off those made field goals, the Bulls were 50-for-71 from the floor, good for a shooting percentage of .704. This shooting percentage tops their percentage they had against Eastern Michigan in the 2002-03 season of .672.
In the win, Isaac Jack recorded his first career double-double with a career-high 16 points and career-high 13 rebounds. In just his second game of the season, Kuluel Mading also recorded a double-double with career-high in points (14) and rebounds (11).
The Bulls led wire to wire as Armoni Foster drained a three-pointer just six-seconds into the contest leading to an 18-0 run to start the game. Buffalo's largest lead would get to 71 with 2:54 left in the game.
The high tempo Bulls added 38 fastbreak points to their season total. Headed into the game they were 14th in the nation averaging 17.00 points per game off fastbreaks.
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich.-- Dwayne Cohill scored a game-high 26 points and Youngstown State shot an opponent-season-best 56.6 percent from the floor as the visiting Penguins defeated Central Michigan, 76-65, Wednesday evening at McGuirk Arena. With the win, Youngstown State improves to 9-4, while Central Michigan drops to 4-8.
Offensively, both teams played at a high level as Youngstown State hit 30 of 53 shots and Central Michigan finished at 52 percent (26-50). But Youngstown State used several runs to keep the Chippewas at bay.
Central Michigan Head Coach Tony Barbee saw some positives but was not pleased with his team's defensive performance.
"Defensively, we are just not very good right now," Central Michigan Head Coach Tony Barbee said. "Your defense starts on the ball at the point of attack. Without Kevin (Miller), we don't have that guy who can dog the ball for a full 40 minutes and not get tired. We did some good things offensively. We shot over 50 percent, which we haven't done in a long time. We had way too many turnovers. At the end of the day, when you let them shoot 56 percent, you're not going to win many games. Defensively, we've got to be better."
Central Michigan was led by senior Brian Taylor's 15 points, junior Markus Harding came off the bench to score 14 points and hit a career-high two 3-pointers, and junior Jesse Zarzuela added 11 points and a career-high seven assists.
Four Youngstown State players reached double figure scoring led by Cohill's 26. Malek Green finished with 16 points, Brandon Rush scored 15, and Adrian Nelson added 10 and eight rebounds.
Trailing by nine points at halftime, Central Michigan entered the second half with renewed energy as the Chippewas slowly clawed their way back into the game. CMU outscored YSU 10-2 over a three-minute span to cut the deficit to three points (47-44) with 15:45 to play. A 3-pointer by Reggie Bass and a layup by Ola Ajiboye started the rally, and then following two YSU free throws, Harding swished a 3-pointer and Max Majerle turned a fast break into a layup.
That was as close as CMU came as Youngstown State answered by hitting back-to-back 3-pointers by Cohill and scoring 14 of the next 16 points to go up 63-48 with 9:45 to go.
The Chippewas made one last push fueled by pressure defense, three field goals by Nico Pavrette, and a 3-pointer by Taylor to cut the margin to three, but the Penguins answered with a flurry of baskets to keep the hosts at bay.
After a closely contested start to the game, Youngstown State opened the game up by outscoring CMU 10-3 over a three-minute first half span to take a 10-point lead (30-20), The Penguins expanded their lead to 13-points (35-22) with 3:34 left in the first half on a dunk by Nelson and a 3-pointer by Cohill. YSU pushed its lead to 39-24 on a dunk by Brandon Rush.
A Markus Harding jumper cut YSU's advantage down to nine points at halftime (41-32). Harding and Taylor kept the Chippewas in the game in the first half as the duo scored 11 and 10 points respectively.
NEWARK, Del. – Led by a career-high 23 points from sophomore forward AJ Clayton, the Ohio Bobcats (7-5) defeated Delaware (8-5), 95-76, Wednesday night inside the Bob Carpenter Center.
"I'm really proud of our guys and I thought we played a complete 40 minutes," head coach Jeff Boals said. "You know, they made a couple runs in certain wars, but our defense really carried us and got us a really good lead. What can you say about AJ Clayton's performance? He and Dwight Wilson, it's good to have that balance. We had five guys in double figures again, shooting 53%, 43% and 95% from the free throw line on the road against a really good team, you know, just a great road win for our guys."
Overall, Ohio shot 52.4 percent from the field, 42.9 percent from three and were 20-of-21 from the line, while Delaware shot 42.2 percent from the field, 33.3 percent from three and were 12-of-18 from the line. Ohio outrebounded Delaware, 43-29, and dished out 16 assists to the Blue Hens' 18.
Individually, Clayton led Ohio with 23 points, going 6-of-11 from the field, 9-of-9 from the line and grabbed six rebounds. Graduate student forward Dwight Wilson III added 16 points and 13 rebounds for a double double. Freshman guard AJ Brown scored 14 points and grabbed five rebounds, while senior guard Miles Brown scored 11 points and hit three 3-pointers, while junior guard Jaylin Hunter also scored 11 points.
For Delaware, Jameer Nelson, Jr. scored 20 points and grabbed six rebounds, while Ebby Asamoah scored 17.
MUNCIE, Ind. – Ball State returned to the friendly confines of Worthen Arena for a midweek contest with Georgia Southern. Jaylin Sellers produced a game-high 17 points to pace the Cardinals in a 58-54 victory.
Ball State improved to 8-4 overall, while Georgia Southern dropped to 7-6 on the year.
Sellers led all scorers with 17 and tied for a team-high seven rebounds for BSU. He added an assist and a steal. Jarron Coleman chipped in with 12 points with three rebounds and three assists. Basheer Jihad finished with 12 points, four rebounds, and one block. Demarius Jacobs recorded a career-high four blocks to go along with his 11 points, six rebounds, and game-high four assists. Payton Sparks and Mickey Pearson Jr. each brought down seven boards.
Sellers started the game on fire scoring the team's first eight points as the Cardinals trailed the Eagles 9-8 with 13:07 left in the half. During that span, Sellers recorded a steal and a fast-break slam.
The first stanza of action was a low-scoring affair as Georgia Southern held a 24-17 lead at the break.
The Eagles opened the second half on a 14-7 run. The run led to a Georgia Southern 14-point lead, 38-24, with 16:01 left in play.
After a 30-second timeout, things started to click for the Cardinals. Ball State came out of the timeout with intensity and went on a 16-0 run. The Cardinals took a 40-38 lead and during the run, Ball State held Georgia Southern scoreless for 4:50 of game time. Coleman and Jacobs led the way during the run with seven and five points, respectively.
With 10:56 left in regulation, the Eagles tied the game 40-40. Georgia Southern started to gain some momentum and took a 45-42 lead with 7:15 left to play.
Ball State was resilient and reclaimed a 46-45 lead after Coleman knocked down two big free throws. The next Cardinal possession, Sellers drove to the hoop and was fouled on a made layup. He converted the and-1 to extend the BSU lead to 49-45 with just under six minutes left to play.
Sparks made a free throw and gave Ball State a 52-49 lead with 2:30 left on the clock. After a BSU turnover, Jacobs came up with a huge block on the defensive end of the court to keep Ball State's lead at 52-49. Jacobs did not stop there, with four seconds left to play he recorded another big block.
Free throws ended up being pivotal down the stretch as the Cardinals went 6-of-7 from the stripe and won the game 58-54.
Carlos Curry tied for a team-high 13 points and brought down a game-high 11 rebounds for the Eagles. Tai Strickland also collected 13 points with five rebounds, a team-high three steals, and one assist. Kamari Archie closed out the double-digit scorers with 10 points.