Bulls Pick Up First Conference Win With 83-78 Victory At Miami

Friday, January 10

Oxford, OH

7 pm

10-6,1-2MAC

Miami (OH)

7-9,0-3MAC

Buffalo

Miami (OH)

Photo by: Miami Athletics

Bulls Pick Up First Conference Win With 83-78 Victory At Miami

1/10/2020 10:08:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

OXFORD, OH – Five players scored in double figures led by 25 points from junior Jayvon Graves as the Bulls picked up their first Mid-American Conference victory with an 83-78 win at Miami. The win was UB's 10^th of the season.

The first half was a game of runs as the host RedHawks opened the night scoring the first 11 points. However, a bucket from sophomore Ronaldo Segu began a run of 17 straight Buffalo points as the Bulls pulled ahead. It went on to be a 22-2 run as a pair of free throws from Josh Mballa put the Bulls ahead 22-13 with 10:25 left.

Miami tied the game up at 29-29 and then the RedHawks went on a 9-2 run to take a 38-31 lead. Buffalo pulled within two but five straight Miami points put the RedHawks into the break, up 43-36.

Miami scored the first bucket of the second half to take a nine-point lead and they continued to lead 54-49 when the Bulls scored 10 straight, capped off on a three by Segu, giving Buffalo a 59-54 lead and the Bulls never looked back.

A triple from senior Davonta Jordan gave Buffalo a 71-62 lead, its largest of the second half with 7:57 left. A fast-break dunk from Mballa put UB ahead 76-68 with 3:51 remaining, but Miami would make one last push.

With the Bulls leading by six with 18 seconds left, the RedHawks scored four straight to pull within two. Segu hit a pair of free throws to go back up four and the Bulls hunkered down on defense following the pair, causing a Miami five seconds call.

"I was really happy with the way we defended tonight and we challenged the guys to play with energy and get back to Blue Collar basketball and I thought we did that," said head coach Jim Whitesell. "Offensively, the ball moved much better and we got balanced scoring up and down the lineup."

Graves led all players with 25 points as he went 9-of-16 from the floor, adding three rebounds and three assists.

Segu finished with 16 points off the bench, and he had a team-high six assists. Jordan played all but 28 seconds in the game and had a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds, while chipping in five assists.

It was one of two double-doubles for the Bulls as Mballa finished with 12 points and a game-high 13 rebounds. Sophomore Jeenathan Williams added 11 points.

Defensively, the Bulls did a nice job on Miami's leading scorer Nike Simbande, who scored just eight points on 4-of-11 shooting. UB held a 43-40 advantage on the glass and had six blocked shots and eight steals.

Buffalo is now 1-2 in league play for the third time in the last five years, finishing with those starts in both 2016 and 2017.

UB returns home on Tuesday night when the Bulls host Ohio at 7pm at Alumni Arena.