Balanced Scoring Leads To 111-73 Exhibition Win Over Daemen

Thursday, October 24

Buffalo, NY

7 pm

0-0,0-0MAC

111

Daemen College (Exhibition)

0-0,0-0ECC

Daemen

Buffalo

111

Balanced Scoring Leads To 111-73 Exhibition Win Over Daemen

10/24/2019 10:48:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Photo Gallery

BUFFALO, NY – The 2019-20 University at Buffalo men's basketball team got off to a hot start on Thursday night as six Bulls scored in double figures in a 111-73 victory over Daemen College.
The Bulls used a strong defensive effort to force Daemen into 20 turnovers, which Buffalo turned into 43 fast-break points. UB used its depth as 14 players saw action, with 13 of those finding the scoring column.

Daemen held one lead early in the contest at 7-6, but the Bulls would retake the lead shortly thereafter. With Buffalo leading 20-16, the Bulls went on a 24-10 run, capped off on a three-pointer from senior transfer Gabe Grant, who was playing in his first contest in more than a year, putting the Bulls ahead 44-26 with 2:49 left in the first half. It was the largest lead of the half for the Bulls as they took a 52-39 lead into the break.

Buffalo shot just under 63% from the field in the second half as the Bulls exploded for 59 points over the final 20 minutes of action. The Bulls flexed their athleticism early on first coming on an alley-oop to senior transfer Antwain Johnson, who converted through contact, connecting for the three-point play. Just moments later, sophomore transfer Josh Mballa had a thunderous block off the backboard and the Bulls ran with it in transition, as sophomore Jeenathan Williams finished it off on a fast-break one-handed alley-oop off the pass from classmate Ronaldo Segu, extending the advantage to 61-44 just over three minutes in.

UB continued to extend its advantage as junior Jayvon Graves made it an 80-53 game on a fast-break dunk in transition and a layup in transition from Segu gave Buffalo its first 30-point lead of the night at 97-67.

The Bulls ended the night strong finishing on a 14-2 run over the final 4:18. The run was 14 straight points for Buffalo at one point as a layup from freshman Savion Gallion gave the Bulls their largest lead of the night at 111-71.

"It was a good effort by our guys," said head coach Jim Whitesell. "Give a lot of credit to Daemen. They did some good things offensively and their big guy, [Andrew] Sischo was a load for us. We did have a couple good spurts, especially the second 10 minutes of the first half, which gave us a lead. I liked the way we started off the second half. I thought Jayvon Graves did a nice job of getting us going."

Grant led the Bulls with 19 points on 7-of-11 shooting and 4-of-7 from behind the arc. The Chicago, IL native added six rebounds. Williams had 16 points and five rebounds, while Graves added 14 points.

Segu had a double-double with 12 points and a game-high 14 assists, while adding four assists. Johnson added 12 points and senior Davonta Jordan added 10 points and five rebounds.

Mballa added seven points, five rebounds, and two blocks in 12 minutes of action. Junior David Nickelberry had six points, while Gallion added four. Junior Brock Bertram picked up the start and finished with three points, four rebounds, and three blocked shots.

As a team, the Bulls had nine blocks and outscored Daemen, 62-40 in the paint and 43-11 on fast breaks.

UB will return to action when it opens the regular season on Nov. 8 against Dartmouth at Alumni Arena.