BUFFALO, NY – Freshman Lamonte Bearden hit an off-balance fade away jumper with 15 seconds remaining on Friday night to put the Buffalo Bulls ahead for good as UB defeated Bowling Green 77-75, giving the Bulls a share of the MAC regular season title, for just the second time in school history.
The Bulls join Central Michigan and Kent State as co-champions and will enter the upcoming MAC Tournament as the No. 2 seed and get a bye straight to Friday's semifinals. Bowling Green enters as a No. 5 seed and hosts No. 12 Ball State.
The Bulls have improved to 21-9 on the season, their most wins in a year since 2008-09 and they finished conference play with a 12-6 mark.
UB was forced to overcome a 14-point first half deficit to pull out Friday’s victory. It was the largest deficit that it has overcome in a game this season, and the Bulls did it in less than four minutes of game action.
(CLICK READ MORE TO CONTINUE . . . )
The Bulls join Central Michigan and Kent State as co-champions and will enter the upcoming MAC Tournament as the No. 2 seed and get a bye straight to Friday's semifinals. Bowling Green enters as a No. 5 seed and hosts No. 12 Ball State.
The Bulls have improved to 21-9 on the season, their most wins in a year since 2008-09 and they finished conference play with a 12-6 mark.
UB was forced to overcome a 14-point first half deficit to pull out Friday’s victory. It was the largest deficit that it has overcome in a game this season, and the Bulls did it in less than four minutes of game action.
(CLICK READ MORE TO CONTINUE . . . )
The Falcons built a 34-20 lead, taking advantage of some poor UB free throw shooting, but a three pointer from senior Will Regan ignited a 15-1 run to end the half. Regan hit two triples, while the other three came from sophomore Shannon Evans, who stepped back just a little bit further after each one. The last one, which came on a fast-break, tied the game up at 35-35 at the half.
The second half was extremely tight as neither team led by more than four points over the final 20 minutes of play. The Falcons were up two early in the half when a steal turned into an acrobatic and-one from Bearden, giving the Bulls a 43-42 lead.
Bowling Green took a 59-55 lead with 7:39 left, but UB went on a 9-1 run, which was capped off on a three-point play from Justin Moss to give UB a 64-60 lead with 5:01 left. The Bulls continued to lead by four at 66-62 when Bowling Green went on an 8-2 run to take a 70-68 lead with 1:40 left.
Another three-point play from Moss put the Bulls back up by one, but three straight Bowling Green points gave the Falcons a 73-71 lead with 52 seconds left.
Regan answered with a huge triple to put UB back up with 38 seconds left, but the Falcons answered again and led 75-74 with 26 second remaining. The next trip down the floor, Bearden put up the fade away jumper in the paint to give the Bulls a 76-75 lead.
BG then missed the front end of a one-and-one. Moss grabbed the board and was fouled. He made one of two to put UB up 77-75 with six seconds left. Following a jump ball, BG had one last chance with 1.5 seconds left, but a lob to the basket was off the mark and went out of bounds. The Bulls regained possession and just threw it in and allowed the clock to expire.
"I am so proud of this team and how they competed and fought tonight. We knew that Bowling Green was playing for exactly what we were playing for and it was going to be an absolute war out there and it lived up to that," said Hurley.
"I am so happy for Will Regan and the way he played tonight in his last game at Alumni Arena and he hit a lot of big shots for us and was gritty in the post. It wasn't our best game, but we found a way and that is what good teams do, especially this time of year."
Despite being in foul trouble all evening, Moss still led the Bulls with 19 points and nine rebounds, while adding an assist, a block and three steals. He paced four players in double figures. Regan finished with a season-high 17 points, making five three pointers, and also adding eight rebounds.
Evans added 14 points and nine assists, while Bearden had 10 points and five assists. All 10 of his points came in the second half. Senior Xavier Ford added six points and nine rebounds, including five on the offensive end.
Junior Rodell Wigginton added six points off the bench, while Jarryn Skeete finished with three points and Raheem Johnson added two.
Bowling Green is now 19-10 with the loss and 11-7 in conference play. BG was led by 21 points from Jehvon Clarke and 19 points from Anthony Henderson.
(Courtesy of UB Athletics)
The second half was extremely tight as neither team led by more than four points over the final 20 minutes of play. The Falcons were up two early in the half when a steal turned into an acrobatic and-one from Bearden, giving the Bulls a 43-42 lead.
Bowling Green took a 59-55 lead with 7:39 left, but UB went on a 9-1 run, which was capped off on a three-point play from Justin Moss to give UB a 64-60 lead with 5:01 left. The Bulls continued to lead by four at 66-62 when Bowling Green went on an 8-2 run to take a 70-68 lead with 1:40 left.
Another three-point play from Moss put the Bulls back up by one, but three straight Bowling Green points gave the Falcons a 73-71 lead with 52 seconds left.
Regan answered with a huge triple to put UB back up with 38 seconds left, but the Falcons answered again and led 75-74 with 26 second remaining. The next trip down the floor, Bearden put up the fade away jumper in the paint to give the Bulls a 76-75 lead.
BG then missed the front end of a one-and-one. Moss grabbed the board and was fouled. He made one of two to put UB up 77-75 with six seconds left. Following a jump ball, BG had one last chance with 1.5 seconds left, but a lob to the basket was off the mark and went out of bounds. The Bulls regained possession and just threw it in and allowed the clock to expire.
"I am so proud of this team and how they competed and fought tonight. We knew that Bowling Green was playing for exactly what we were playing for and it was going to be an absolute war out there and it lived up to that," said Hurley.
"I am so happy for Will Regan and the way he played tonight in his last game at Alumni Arena and he hit a lot of big shots for us and was gritty in the post. It wasn't our best game, but we found a way and that is what good teams do, especially this time of year."
Despite being in foul trouble all evening, Moss still led the Bulls with 19 points and nine rebounds, while adding an assist, a block and three steals. He paced four players in double figures. Regan finished with a season-high 17 points, making five three pointers, and also adding eight rebounds.
Evans added 14 points and nine assists, while Bearden had 10 points and five assists. All 10 of his points came in the second half. Senior Xavier Ford added six points and nine rebounds, including five on the offensive end.
Junior Rodell Wigginton added six points off the bench, while Jarryn Skeete finished with three points and Raheem Johnson added two.
Bowling Green is now 19-10 with the loss and 11-7 in conference play. BG was led by 21 points from Jehvon Clarke and 19 points from Anthony Henderson.
(Courtesy of UB Athletics)
RSS Feed