Slow start dooms UB in loss

By Budd Bailey

No one was too happy about the way the University at Buffalo’s men’s basketball team played on Saturday afternoon.

Especially the coach.

“Our entire team is disappointed about the way we came out today,” said head coach George Halcovage after a discouraging 95-83 loss to Ohio University in Alumni Arena. “I don’t think we brought the proper fight to this game, the proper focus. We’ve got to learn from this. … We have to all stick together. We have to take pride when another team has a run in our place in taking that punch and punching right back.”

The Bulls and Bobcats had similar records entering the game, so this figured to be a good chance for UB to return to the .500 mark in Mid-American Conference play. This was true for the first nine minutes of the game.

Then the Bulls (14-8, 4-6 MAC) slowly unraveled. Points became difficult to come by, while Ohio was getting the ball inside rather easily for good shots. The Bobcats sank 54.8 percent of their field goals in the first half, while Buffalo was 9 of 23. When the halftime buzzer sounded, UB trailed by a score of 46-31.

“We really got careless in the last 10 minutes of the first half,” Halcovage said.  

“It’s definitely frustrating,” guard Ryan Sabol said. “All you can do is keeping working at it. You’ve got to stay together. In the huddle, you say to think about one possession at a time.”

The second half featured some better play by the Bulls. Daniel Freitag had three straight baskets to provide an opening spark, which carried UB to a spurt that cut the lead to six points with more than 12 minutes left. Ohio, however, answered that challenge and a few others in the half. That included a spot where Buffalo had the ball down by seven with 3:15 left, but didn’t score. The Bobcats then went on a 9-2 spurt to send the 2,005 spectators out into the frozen tundra.

Freitag finished with 25 points, while Sabol had 22 and Angelo Brizzi added 14. Ohio had four players with at least 16 points, led by Javan Simmons with 24 points (to go with 13 rebounds). The Bobcats are apparently tough to outscore; they put up 91 points on UB in a January meeting.

“When they’re on, they’re on,” Halcovage said. “They’re really good. They’re tough, and they play well with their personnel. We did not do a good job guarding their personnel. We did not execute the gameplan on Simmons. We gave them easy points in the paint, and that’s just commitment.”

The outcome was disappointing on a number of levels for the Bulls. They had ended five-game losing streak on Tuesday night in Bowling Green. The hope was that UB could use that as a push into its next two games at home. That didn’t happen.

“I think momentum is a thing in sports,” Halcovage said. “We won by 11 against a really good team on the road, and did a great job of sticking together. We’ve got to carry over that. That’s what we talked about before the game. We build on what we’ve done, and learn from what we’ve done. But we did not take care of the basketball.”

Connected to that fact is that the Bulls simply aren’t playing well at home these days. After starting the season 6-1 in friendly confines of its arena, Buffalo has lost four in a row. The team is 8-3 on the road this season. That’s a hard way to reach 14-8, but it is reality.

“I think we’ve had a lead at halftime in about every road game in MAC play,” Halcovage said. “We’ve been down double digits at home in at least three home games. We’d better start learning from that. I don’t think it has to do with being at home. I think it has to do with our team’s consistency on being focused on one game at a time and not worrying about outcomes.”

If UB needs a little incentive to turn matters around quickly, it is available. The next home game is Tuesday night against Miami (Ohio). The RedHawks are 22-0 after routing Northern Illinois on Saturday afternoon. They will be nationally ranked on Tuesday night. UB coulda/woulda/shoulda beaten Miami when the two teams played in Ohio on January 17, but the Bulls fell in overtime. That could help.

“Until midnight, I’ll be focused on this last game, but after midnight, I’ll focus on the next one,” Freitag said. “That (Miami) happens to be the team that we almost had that’s nationally ranked. If we bring a great attitude, we’ll have a shot.”

Meanwhile, the calendar flips to February on Sunday, and that’s when teams in the MAC have to start thinking about playoff seedings. There are eight tickets available to the conference championship in mid-March, and the Bulls are decidedly on the bubble right now.

“If you worry about the conference tournament, you’re probably not making it,” Halcovage said. “If you’re a team that got off to a really hot start, you’re in great position. But even if you let your foot off the gas, you can find yourself in a spot you don’t want to be in going into the tournament. All you can focus on is one game.”

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