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Princeton
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Bulls Suffer First Loss of the Season at Princeton
11/19/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
PRINCETON, NJ – The University at Buffalo men's basketball team suffered its first loss of the season at Princeton, 61-53, on Saturday afternoon at Jadwin Gym. The Bulls got off to a sluggish start and never recovered.
Buffalo scored only 16 points in the first half on 6-for-30 shooting. UB had 12 first-half turnovers and were never able to get into a rhythm. Princeton jumped out to an 18-4 lead and never looked back. The Tigers led 37-16 at the half.
Buffalo played better in the second half, especially defensively. The Bulls had eight second-half steals and held the Tigers to only five second-half field goals. UB also cut down on its turnovers, committing only three in the second half. But the deficit was too great to overcome as the Bulls got no closer than seven points.
"It was a tale of two halves," said head coach Reggie Witherspoon. "I thought the second half we recouped a little bit. And I thought the last 25 minutes of the game we played pretty hard. We needed a bit more poise to come out of that big of a hole and I think we got a little bit impatient offensively in the second half."
The Bulls big men were hampered with foul trouble all game and Princeton was able to capitalize. Javon McCrea led UB with 19 points in a season-low 28 minutes. Mitchell Watt was limited to just 17 minutes and had nine points and six rebounds.
Zach Filzen scored 11 points, including two three-pointers. His second triple moved him past Sean Smiley (2005-10) for fourth in school history for career three-pointers (133).
Xavier Ford pulled down a team-high seven rebounds to go along with three points in nine minutes of action.
Ian Hummer led Princeton with 18 points and 12 rebounds.
Buffalo returns home to face Canisius on Tuesday night at 7:00 pm at Alumni Arena.
