Tag it:

?

Alumni Arena

The victory gave Buffalo a share of its first MAC basketball title, and while co-titlist Bowling Green earned the MAC tournament’s first seed, Buffalo now enters this week’s conference tourney as a three seed.

The win capped a roller-coaster regular season for Buffalo, which started conference play with a 9-1 mark, but dropped four of its last five MAC games before meeting the RedHawks. Four teams were tied for first place in the MAC East entering Sunday’s schedule.

Miami took an early lead against Buffalo and held it through most of the contest. Connecting on 17-of-25 (68 percent) from the field, the RedHawks built up a 40-27 halftime advantage.

Part of the visitors' early success could be credited to contributions from the bench. Julian Mavunga had eight points with a strong inside game and Rodney Haddix II added six during the first half.

However, fortunes shifted in the next 20 minutes. Miami’s bench personnel provided just two points and the RedHawks offense began to stumble – particularly when an injury forced point guard Carl Richburg from the game for several minutes.

“At the end of the first half, we kind of knew they would come back, but I was a little disappointed in how fast they came back,” Miami coach Charlie Coles said.

An 11-2 Buffalo run, capped by Mitchell Watt’s jumper at the 8:32 mark tied the contest at 53-53. Baskets by Calvin Betts and Andy Robinson pushed the hosts ahead by four, but Miami responded with six straight points to take a 59-57 lead.

“I don’t know if it was a well-played ball game, but it was highly contested,” Coles said.

Free throws got the Bulls to overtime, and free throws paved the way to ultimate victory in the extra period. Shortly after Miami tied the game at 63-63 on an Antonio Ballard layup, the RedHawks were whistled for a foul on Watt, who was attempting a trey. He sank all three to give his team a lead it would not relinquish.

Buffalo made 18-of-22 free throws (81.8 percent) for the game. Miami converted 8-of-11 (72.7 percent)

Bramos led all scorers with 19 points on the day and also collected 10 rebounds for his first double-double of the year. He was 9-of 17 from the field, but only 1-of-7 from behind the arc.

Richburg was the only other RedHawk in double figures. He had 13 points while reaching double figures for the third time in 2008-2009.

Overall, Miami made 27-of-52 (51.9 percent) from the field, while Buffalo succeeded on 25-of-61 (41 percent).

Andy Robinson paced Buffalo with 17 markers. Joining him in double figures were Watt (14), Betts (13) and Gamble (13).

“Mitchell Watt was the guy (that hurt us) today. We didn’t do a very good job on him,” Coles said. “Any time a kid comes into a game, and he is averaging two points a game, and he gets 14 points in the game, he is the player of the game.”

Coles continued, “When you win these kind of games, somebody usually has to do something they haven’t done, and they did that. That is the difference.”

Both teams will be able to rest until their quarterfinal MAC Tournament games Thursday at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland. Buffalo (3) gets the winner of Tuesday’s Kent State (6) versus Northern Illinois (11) tilt in a 2:30 p.m. game. Miami will meet Tuesday’s Akron (5) versus Toledo (12) winner at 9:30 p.m.