Segu And Hardnett Power Bulls To 85-73 Win Over Central Michigan

Thursday, February 25

Buffalo, NY

2:00 pm

11-7,9-5MAC

Central Michigan

6-14,2-11MAC

Central Mich.

Buffalo

Segu And Hardnett Power Bulls To 85-73 Win Over Central Michigan

2/25/2021 5:27:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

BUFFALO, NY- Sophomore LaQuill Hardnett finished with 20 points and 10 rebounds and junior Ronaldo Segu had 14 points and 11 assists as the University at Buffalo men's basketball team defeated Central Michigan, 85-73 at Alumni Arena. The victory was UB's fifth in its last six games as the Bulls improve to 11-7 on the season and 9-5 in league play.

The double-doubles were the first in the careers of Hardnett and Segu. Despite struggling from distance in the first half, the Bulls still led wire-to-wire, scoring the first six points of the afternoon. The Chippewas were twice able to tie the game up, but CMU could never take the lead.

Buffalo finished the opening half strong as UB led by just one when junior Tra'von Fagan drilled a triple, igniting a 7-0 run to end the half. Segu put the finishing touches on the run with a circus layup as time expired.

The Bulls continued to lead by eight early in the second half when Buffalo went on a 7-0 run, five of those points coming from Hardnett, which pulled UB ahead 50-35 with 16:57 left.

Buffalo took its largest lead of the afternoon on a layup from junior Josh Mballa, giving the Bulls a 72-54 advantage with 5:41 left. The Chippewas would come all the way back to pull within eight, but four quick points from the Bulls put the game away.

"Give Central Michigan a lot of credit, they kind of kept us off kilter and that got us off to a bit of a scattered start," said head coach Jim Whitesell. "I thought we got frustrated early because we missed some good shots, but we've won five of our last six and that's good. I am happy with the win and now we want to go and try and make it a perfect week on Saturday."

Hardnett finished with 20 points and 10 rebounds. He went 6-of-6 from the floor and 7-of-11 from the free throw line. He has now been perfect from the floor over the last three games and since joining the starting line up on Feb. 2, he has hit 20 of 21 shots from the floor.

Junior Jeenathan Williams finished with 17 points and four boards, while Jayvon Graves had 15 points.

Segu added 14 points and a career-high 11 assists. The 11 assists are the most by a UB player since Wes Clark also had 11 against Ohio on Feb. 24, 2018.

Mballa finished just shy of a double-double with 11 points and nine boards. Fagan finished with five points, and redshirt freshman David Skogman added three points.

The Bulls outrebounded Central Michigan 39-29 in the contest and defensively, the Bulls forced the Chippewas into 17 turnovers.

Buffalo concludes their stretch of three games in five days on Saturday afternoon when the Bulls head to Ohio. Tipoff is at 2pm.