UB's attempt at winning slips away

By Budd Bailey

Sometimes they fall, sometimes they don’t.

The University at Buffalo’s men’s basketball team knew about that entering the final nine seconds of its game with Massachusetts Friday night. The Minutemen held a 68-67 lead, but the Bulls had the ball and thus has the chance to end a four-game losing streak before 2,310 in Alumni Arena.

The designed play was no surprise: get the ball to its best offensive creator, Daniel Freitag, and let him penetrate for a shot for a pass.

“You put confidence in those guys to make a read,” coach George Halcovage said. “You have the ball in (Freitag’s) hands. Ryan’s ready to make a play if Daniel can’t get downhill. He had a good look. We just came up short.”

Freitag had a 16-footer near the foul line, but his shot hit the front rim and fell harmlessly (at least for UMass) away, as the Bulls let this one get away by the narrowest of margins.

“It was an unbelievable college basketball game,” Halcovage said. “Credit to UMass – they made the plays they needed to, took advantage of us.”

It was a slightly surprising outcome to a game that had a couple of major twists and turns. Both sides had their chances at taking control, but couldn’t do it. Considering this game looked like an even matchup on paper, the teams took the long way of getting there.

The Minutemen had a 15-0 run in the middle of the first half to take a 30-11 lead after a little more than 12 minutes of play. It was reminiscent of Akron’s 19-2 start to Tuesday’s game against Buffalo, and the Bulls needed to erase those memories quickly.

“We got down 20, and we didn’t match their physicality,” Halcovage said. “I felt confident that we’d get back in the game and fight.”

UB had only hit 1 of 9 three-pointer during that opening portion. Ryan Sabol regained his shooting touch in the final minutes to score the Bulls’s final eight points at the half to cut the margin to 38-29. Sabol is the team’s best outside shooter, and he has the confidence to keep launching the ball even when he’s not finding the net very often.

“It’s an instinct thing,” Sabol said. “We talk about doing whatever it takes. I missed my first few, but Coach and my teammates have confidence in me. They tell me to keep shooting. That was my mentality. I ended up hitting a couple of them.”

The Bulls also caught a break when Noah Batchelor didn’t miss much playing time after turning his ankle in the first half. He hopped off the court at one point, only to return less than five minutes later. The senior has a calming influence on the rest of the team, which was needed under the circumstances. UB was a plus-8 when Batchelor was on the court.

“I just rolled my ankle, but (the trainer) retaped it as I was good to go,” he said.

“He’s our anchor,” Halcovage said. “I’ve said it all year. For a guy to be in his last year, he’s got 35 opportunities including practices left in his college career. I just challenged him to let it all out there and give it your best effort every day. Don’t question anything. Do what you’ve been doing all year.”

Buffalo had the lead down to 54-47 when it went on a 14-0 run of its own. With five minutes left, UB had a 61-54 lead. But nothing is coming easily for the Bulls lately.

“I thought we didn’t stay aggressive on a couple of possessions when we could have,” Halcovage said. “I didn’t feel like we were tired. They made some tough plays and tough finishes.”

Leonardo Bettiol converted a conventional three-play to give UMass a 68-67 lead. Freitag missed a shot with 38 seconds to go, but Massachusetts had a shot-clock violation to give the Bulls that last opportunity.

“We were just one shot or one stop short again,” Halcovage said.

Sabol led all scorers with 27 points, while Freitag had 18 and Batchelor – on 7 for 7 shooting, including two three-pointers – finished with 16. Marcus Banks led UMass with 19 points.

Assuming UB can get out of town in the wake of an apparent snowstorm that’s on the way, the Bulls get another chance to end the current skid on Tuesday night with a game at Bowling Green.

(Follow Budd on X.com via @WDX2BB)