Bulls Win Third Straight MAC Game; 85-69 At Western Michigan

Tuesday, January 12

Kalamazoo, MI

2:00 pm

5-3,3-1MAC

Western Michigan

2-8,1-4MAC

Buffalo

Western Mich.

Bulls Win Third Straight MAC Game; 85-69 At Western Michigan

1/12/2021 4:27:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

KALAMAZOO, MI – The University at Buffalo men's basketball team improved to 3-1 in Mid-American Conference play on Tuesday afternoon with an 85-69 win over Western Michigan. Overall, the Bulls improve to 5-3 on the year.

On Saturday it was Josh Mballa who put forth the career performance and on Tuesday afternoon it was junior Jeenathan Williams who set career highs. The Rochester, NY native finished just shy of his career best with 25 points but notched a new career high in rebounds with 14.

In the opening half, the Bulls got out to a seven point lead with 8:22 left as a three from senior Jayvon Graves put Buffalo ahead, 22-15. The Broncos would come back and regain a two-point advantage, but a 6-0 run for the Bulls over the final 2:38 gave UB a 38-32 lead into the break.

The Bulls had a red-hot start to the second half, opening on an 18-4 run over the first five minutes of action. A pair of three pointers from sophomore Ronaldo Segu and one from Graves put UB ahead 56-36.

The Broncos would cut the Buffalo lead in half over the next 10 minutes, but Western Michigan would never cut it into single digits. UB responded with the next six points, capped off on a thunderous fast-break dunk from Graves, which put the Bulls back ahead 83-67 with 2:30 left and UB would go on to win by 16.

"I was really happy with how we finished the first half and that continued early in the second half when we took that big lead," said head coach Jim Whitesell. "I thought we got great contributions off the bench and when we moved the ball well, we were really hard to stop. I told the guys this was the second goal of ours for this week and now we need to go finish it on Friday."

Williams led all scorers with 25 points and 14 rebounds, while adding three assists. Mballa, the reigning MAC Player of the Week, finished with 14 points and nine rebounds, while Graves and Segu also each added 14 points. Graves also finished with seven rebounds.

Senior Keishawn Brewton had six points and a career high four assists, while David Nickelberry added six points off the bench and LaQuill Hardnett had four.

The Bulls held a 43-35 advantage on the glass and turned it over just eight times for the game compared to 15 for Western Michigan.

UB returns to Alumni Arena on Friday night when the Bulls host Bowling Green. That game will begin at 7pm and air nationally on CBS Sports Network.