Bulls Roll To 88-77 Win Over William & Mary

Saturday, November 30

Buffalo, NY

2 pm

5-2,0-0MAC

William & Mary

5-3,0-0CAA

William & Mary

Buffalo

Bulls Roll To 88-77 Win Over William & Mary

11/30/2019 5:46:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Post Game Press Conference Photo Gallery

BUFFALO, NY – Playing at home for the first time in 19 days, the University at Buffalo men's basketball team won their third straight game with an impressive 88-77 win over William & Mary on Saturday afternoon. With the victory the Bulls improve to 5-2 on the season.

Eight players found the scoring column as Buffalo led for just under 36 minutes of action. William & Mary entered the game with a 5-2 record, with their two losses coming on the road at Oklahoma, a game they lost by just five, and a loss at Stanford. Led by a pair of post players and a dynamic three-point shooting attack, the Tribe hit their first three triples to take a 12-11 lead. W&M extended the lead to 14-11 before the Bulls went on a quick 9-1 run and took the lead for good. UB got production off its bench in that run, including a jump shot from junior David Nickelberry and a three-point from senior Gave Grant.

William & Mary pulled back within one at the 10:20 mark of the opening half, but Grant drilled another triple as UB scored nine straight to take a 31-21 lead. The Bulls led by as many as 14 in the opening half before taking a 43-32 lead into the break.

The Tribe came back and pulled within four, but junior Jayvon Graves answered with back-to-back triples, igniting a quick 8-0 run to pull Buffalo ahead 59-47. A three from sophomore Ronaldo Segu extended the Buffalo lead to 77-61 with 6:13 left and the Bulls took their largest lead on a huge play from Graves who outleaped the Tribe defender on an offensive put back, getting fouled and completing the three-point play to put Buffalo ahead 84-67 with 2:50 left. The Bulls closed it out with the 88-77 win.

"Good job by our guys, I thought they really came ready to play today," said head coach Jim Whitesell. "One of the things we talked about with them this week was the standard in which you play at when you are home. We wanted to come back and play at a high level and I thought we did that at the defensive end and offensively we were able to get our running game going."

Graves led the way with 24 points and five assists, while senior Davonta Jordan finished with 18 points, five rebounds, three assists, seven steals and a blocked shot. His seven steals were tied for fourth most in school history in a single game and his three assists give him 392 for his career, moving him into fifth place all time.

Senior Antwain Johnson had 11 points, while sophomore Josh Mballa finished with 10 points and eight rebounds, including six of those on the offensive end. Grant had nine points on three made triples and sophomore Jeenathan Williams had eight points, three rebounds and a pair of assists.

Segu finished with six points and three assists, while redshirt freshman LaQuill Hardnett didn't score, but had four rebound and three steals in 17 minutes. Nickelberry finished with four assists and a pair of points in 10 minutes of action.

As a team, UB forced 18 turnovers, recording a season-best 15 pilfers. The Bulls shot 54.8% from the floor, including just under 58% in the second half.

After four straight neutral site games and Saturday's home game, the Bulls will play their first true road contest of the season on Tuesday night, facing Vanderbilt of the SEC. Tip off is at 8 pm ET on SEC Network+.