UB misses an opportunity

By Budd Bailey

If you want to know about how to take a direct route from Buffalo to Cleveland, don’t ask the University at Buffalo men’s basketball team. It can’t seem to figure out the way to get there.

The Bulls had another chance on Saturday to take a big step toward qualifying for the Mid-American Conference playoffs. Instead, they stumbled in a 75-70 loss to Central Michigan before 2,499 in Alumni Arena.

Let’s take a look, then, at the situation as the battle for the eight spots in the MAC Tournament moves into its final week. Buffalo fell to 6-10 in conference play with the loss to the Chippewas (also 6-10), so those two teams are tied for seventh. Lurking just behind is Massachusetts at 6-11. Ball State is 5-11, while Northern Illinois, Western Michigan and Eastern Michigan are all 4-12. Meanwhile, six teams are set to go to Cleveland: undefeated Miami, Akron, Kent State, Toledo, Ohio and Bowling Green.

The Bulls could have made life much simpler with a win on Saturday afternoon, and would have clinched a postseason spot with a win and a combination of results elsewhere. But now, they are technically in ninth place since Central Michigan has the tiebreaker on UB after Saturday’s win.

Got all that? With only two games left in their regular season, Buffalo has some work to do in order to play past Friday night in Toledo. While the math might give onlookers a headache, it all can be fun at some level.

“We tell ourselves we have to focus on the next game,” Halcovage said. “That’s your job. But everybody knows that everyone in college basketball loves March Madness. You know where you stand. You know what’s in front of you. The thing is,you can’t cheer for other teams. You have to get it done yourself. You can’t hope. You have to take it. We had an opportunity to take it today, and we didn’t do that.”

If the Bulls’ season does come to an end this week, it will be easy to point a finger at the major reason why. Saturday’s loss meant that UB will go at least two months since its last win at home on – gasp! – January 3 against Ball State. That’s seven straight home losses, which is an odd result for a team that has a 16-13 record overall. There doesn’t seem to be a common denominator to cite either.

“We prepare the same way. We look to execute the same way. I don’t know it is,” the coach said. “The crowd has been great, supporting us. … We’ve had some unfortunate luck. We’ve played some really good teams. Central is playing good basketball. … We knew they were good at their getting confident at the right time. We’ve had guys in and out of the lineup. That’s all part of the journey of a season. I can’t give you an answer, but I would love to see us play here like we do on the road.”

Saturday afternoon’s game looked a bit like the previous two home games in February, which were close losses to Miami and Northern Illinois. The Bulls fell behind in the second half by 16 points, and a late rally moved the team to within three points with 26 seconds left. But they came up just short at the end, in part because Central Michigan sank 10 of its 12 free throws in the final four minutes to maintain a lead.

“We’ve done this before – we’ve had to play our butts off to get back in the game, and we did that,” Halcovage said. “Unfortunately, didn’t have enough in the tank. We did not bring a physicality to the game that was required, against a team that prides itself on being physical and tough. That was the difference in the game.”

And if there’s one statistic that was particularly revealing this time around, it was rebounds. As the middle of the second half approached, UB only had nine rebounds for the entire game. You wouldn’t think that would be even possible in a reasonably close game. The final margin was 39-23 in favor of CWU.

“(Chippewas’ Keenan) Garner – we talked about having him a junk-yard dog mentality, and that’s what he was tonight,” Halcovage said. “That the kind of guys you love – he had no made field goals, but he had 10 rebounds with five offensive rebounds, drew four fouls and had four assists. That guy did what whatever it took to win.”

With Daniel Freitag again out of the lineup with an injury, Ryan Sabol led the way for UB with 17 points after a cold first half. Angelo Brizzi added 14. Tamario Adley of Central Michigan led all scorers with 21 points.

At least the players don’t have to spend much time thinking about all of the contingencies involved here. If Buffalo wins its next two games, it can head down Interstate 90 West and arrive in Cleveland about three hours later. Otherwise, who knows?

“Obviously we want to go to Cleveland,” Sabol said. “We talk about it being one game at a time, and try not to think of it. We’ve got to try to win them both. Hopefully, everything will work out.”

Meanwhile … the UB women’s basketball team completed its home schedule on an up note. Buffalo knocked off Toledo, 69-66, for its first conference win of the season. Since it was on Senior Day, at least the soon-to-be graduates will have a good memory about how they played their last game in Alumni Arena. Aniya Rowe and Gabby McDuffie had 18 points each for the Bulls (3-25), who saw a converted three-pointer by the Rockets be ruled a split-second late by the officials to preserve the victory.

(Follow Budd on X.com via @WDX2BB)