14-10,7-4MAC
Toledo
15-9, 6-5MAC
Williams' Late Bucket Leads Toledo Past UB
2/9/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
BUFFALO, NY – Toledo's Jonathan Williams hit a running baseline floater with 1.4 seconds left on Tuesday night, leading the Toledo Rockets to a 71-69 win over the University at Buffalo, The State University of New York men's basketball team. The Rockets managed to overcome a 10-point deficit with 6:53 left, snapping UB's four-game winning streak. The Bulls are now 14-10 on the season and 7-4 in conference play.
In contrast to Saturday's win where the Bulls trailed for nearly the entire contest before coming away with a late win, tonight the Bulls held the lead for over 32 minutes, but were unable to hold on to their double-digit advantage. The Rockets never led by more than three points, which came on the first basket of the game. The Rockets had another three-point advantage with 5:40 left in the opening half when the Bulls answered with a 16-4 run as a three-pointer from CJ Massinburg put UB ahead 35-26 with 1:18 left. The Bulls went into the break leading 37-28.
UB continued to hold its lead in the second half as another three pointer from Massinburg put the Bulls ahead 51-39 with 13:43 left, which was their largest lead of the game. The Bulls continued to lead by double figures with 6:53 left when Toledo scored five straight to cut the deficit in half. A three pointer from Nick Perkins with 4:33 remaining put the Bulls back up 67-59, but the Rockets scored seven straight to cut the deficit to just 67-66 with 2:32 left. UB went back up 69-66 on a fast-break layup from Jarryn Skeete with 1:50 left, but those were UB's final points.
The Rockets tied the game with 39 seconds left on a three-pointer by Williams and UB's next possession came up empty allowing Toledo to have the final possession, in which the Rockets took the lead on the Williams bucket. UB's last attempt with 1.4 seconds was unsuccessful giving the Rockets the road victory.
"It was a tough loss tonight because we were down a couple guys and had guys in foul trouble, but we still had a double-digit lead, which we were unable to hold on to," said head coach Nate Oats. "You have to give Toledo credit though, they didn't shoot it great, but they just hung in there and their effort on the boards won them the game."
Perkins led the Bulls with a career-high 17 points as he went 6-of-9 from the floor and 3-of-4 from behind the arc. Massinburg added 12 points and four assists off the bench, while Skeete finished with 10 points and six rebounds. Junior Blake Hamilton had 10 points and eight assists, but was hampered due to foul trouble.
Junior David Kadiri finished with six points, four rebounds and three blocks, but also played limited minutes due to foul trouble. In all, four UB players finished with four fouls.
Despite advantages in field goals made and three pointers made, the Bulls had a huge disadvantage at the charity stripe where the Rockets went 19-for-23 opposed to just an 8-of-9 performance from UB. Toledo also held a big advantage on the boards, including 17 offensive rebounds, which it turned into 21 second chance points.
The Bulls will close out their three-game homestand on Friday night when they host Ohio in a nationally televised game on ESPNU. Tip off for the contest is at 7:00 pm.
