DON’T GET ME STARTED watched the University at Buffalo put up a spirited second half defense and offense to finally make it a big time player with an 89-84 victory over seeded Central Michigan.
Art Wander
It really was a nail-biter but in the end UB showed that it was a team effort that resulted in UB playing well into March as it will make its first ever appearance in the NCAA Tournament.
The win was achieved with the Conference’s top player, Justin Moss, hobbled with an ankle injury who scored 10 points in the game. But 2 players picked up the slack to lead the Bulls. Xavier Ford and Shannon Evans scored 18 points apiece. Chris Fowler led all scorers with 27 points for Central Michigan.
Once Buffalo took a 7 point lead going into the final 2 minutes of the game, UB basketball fans simply kept fingers crossed hoping that the clock will keep going. The Chippewas hit a 3 pointer to close it to 4 but the Bulls answered it, moved to 9 points ahead when Central Michigan netted another three. But with the clock going to the one minute mark, Central Michigan had to foul. As it turned out the Bulls kept missing free throws allowing The Chips opportunities to close the gap but Buffalo answered with a pair of needed free throws to make it a 4 point lead with less than 2 seconds left to ice the game.
Congratulations certainly are in order to the players and to head Coach Bobby Hurley. The coach certainly will be no stranger to the “Dance”, having led Duke 3 times to the Tournament and winning a title for Duke. There’s been a lot of speculation that Hurley may have used Buffalo a stop-over into a bigger program. Where there has been some distress when UB was 15-9, the team turned it around and roared to winning its last 8 games.
What is impressive is that the University of Buffalo will be playing in the NCAA Tournament and fans will be looking forward to see who will be the opponent.
Can you imagine UB getting a second shot at mighty Kentucky in the final tournament game?
Let’s remember in the opening of the season, UB gave the Wildcats all they could handle in the first half before wilting in the second half as Kentucky went on to an undefeated season.
Fans will now settle as UB continues its season on Don’t Get Me Started.
Filed under: Local Headlines
Tagged with: Art Wander, Bobby Hurley, UB basketball, University at Buffalo
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