AKRON, OHIO – Senior Gabe Grant hit a three-pointer with 6.1 seconds remaining in regulation as the Buffalo Bulls held on to defeat the Akron Zips 77-74 Tuesday night at Rhodes Arena.
With the victory, Buffalo (14-7, 5-3 MAC) picked . . .
Senior Antuwan Johnson led four UB players in double figures with 18 points. Junior Jayvon Graves tallied 13, while senior Davonte Jordan had 11 and sophomore Jeenathan Williams registered 10 and eight rebounds.
With the loss, Akron dropped its second straight at home and fell out of a tie atop the Eastern Division with Bowling Green, which defeated Ball State 67-61 Tuesday.
“We did defend significantly better than in the two road games last week however we could not make our big shots.” Zips head man John Groce said. “Our offensive efficiently was not where it has to be.”
Junior Loren Cristen Jackson led all scorers in the contest with 28 points 20 of them coming in the second half. Senior Xeriyus Williamd had 16 and 10 rebunds. Junior Tyler Cheese added 12 with four assists and Channel Banks had 11.
The Bulls opened the game scoring the first eight points before UA countered, gaining its only lead of the game 11-10 at the 9:41 mark o na three from the right arc by Cristen Jackson.
When Jordan hit a three-pointer from the left arc on UB’s next possession Buffalo gained a lead it would not relinquish. The triple started a12-2 run, opening a 22-13 lead at the 7:20 mark on a three from the right atc by Graves.
UB opened their largest lead of the half 28-15 at the 4:00 mark on a slam dunkl by Grant and went into halftime with a 33;25 lead.
Akron was lucky to be down only by eight at intermission as the Zips shot only 8-of-29 from the field (27.6 percent). They went 2-of-13 from three-point range and were outrebounded 30-16.
Buffalo did not shoot any better, going 10-of-34 from the floor and 4-of-15 from the beyond the arc. However they hustled to loose balls and got 11 offensive reboujnds in the opening 20 minutes.
The second half was a tale of the Zips doing all they could to catch the Bulls, only to fall short
UA opened the second half outscoring UB 14-7 to close to within a single point (40-39) on a driving layup by Williams.
Every time the Zips would get close, UB pushed the lead back out. Three times in the second half UA managed to get the deficit down to a single possession.
With the Bulls leading 72-67 with 2:50 remaining, UA was still fighting and used a 7-2 spurt to tie the game 74-74 with 22 seconds remaining when Cristen Jackson was fouled from beyond the arc and made all three free throws.
After Grant’s three, UA moved up the floor quickly with no timeouts remaining, the ball came to Cristen Jackson, who threw up a wild three from the left arc, as time expired.
Over the 40 minutes, UB shot 38.7 percent from the field (including 50 percent in the second half), while UA shot 35.9 percent for the evening (23-of-64).
The biggest differential was in th rebounds as Buffalo pulled down 52 (17 of them offensive caroms). Sophomore Josh Mballa had 17 all by himself. Another key stat was Buffalo getting 23 bench points to only five for the Zips.
Both teams are in action over the weekend with the Zips making the short trip to Kent State for a meeting with the Golden Flashes while UB heads home to face the Falcons.