19-14
(2) Ohio
21-11
Bulls Take Down Ohio to Advance to Second Straight MAC Championship Game
3/11/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
CLEVELAND, OH – For the second straight season the University at Buffalo men's basketball team has advanced to the Mid-American Conference title game after defeating the second-seeded Ohio Bobcats, 88-74, in the semifinals of the MAC Tournament on Friday night. The Bulls will play top-seed Akron on Saturday night for a chance to be the MAC's first repeat champion in 14 years.
For the second straight game, Willie Conner led all scorers with 22 points and knocked down three three-pointers. Blake Hamilton added 20 points, all in the second half, and made four treys of his own. UB's perimeter shooting was the difference in the game as the Bulls made a season-best 14 three-pointers on the night.
Nick Perkins hit his first of three three-pointers to put the Bulls ahead, 11-8, a lead they would never relinquish. The freshman forward had his best game of the tournament with 14 points and five rebounds.
Buffalo went on a 13-5 scoring run to end the half and turn a four-point lead into a 41-29 advantage at the break.
It was a three-point barrage to start the second half as each team made four triples in the first three minutes of the half. Twice Ohio was able to cut the UB lead to five, including whittling it down to 67-62 with 6:54 left. But a resilient Buffalo squad responded with a 12-2 scoring run, capped by a deep Lamonte Bearden three-pointer as the shot clock expired to put the Bulls ahead, 79-64, with 4:15 remaining.
It was a great all-around game for Bearden who finished with 15 points, nine assists, three steals and only one turnover. CJ Massinburg also provided solid guard play with six points, a career-high nine rebounds and a pair of blocks.
Defensively, the Bulls had six steals, four blocks and held Ohio to just 40 percent shooting from the floor and just 9-of-29 from beyond the arc. UB outrebounded the Bobcats, 46-36.
"I thought the key to the game was us getting stops, getting out in transition and being able to score in transition was big tonight," head coach Nate Oats said. "So I think we're one of the better teams in the league scoring in transition when we can get stops and get out."
The Bulls will play Akron tomorrow night at 7:30 pm in search of their second MAC Championship in school history and second straight trip to the NCAA Tournament.
"It's special to me," Oats said about returning the MAC Championship game. "We're only playing three guys right now that even played in that game last year - Lamonte and Jaaron and Rodell. For the new guys to come in and just buy into everything we're trying to do here, as a first‑year head coach we kind of went through a lot. Now it looks like we're starting to get that swagger back that we had there when we won four in a row before we went down."
