It was a record-breaking night for the Bulls in Ypsilanti, Mich. UB toppled a record that has stood since the 1973-74 season: most fouls in a game, ousting the previous record of 36 with an all-time high of 42 fouls called against them.
Buffalo fell to the Eastern Michigan Eagles 88-78 Monday night in Eastern Michigan's last home game of the regular season. The final score aptly summarized the fortune of the Bulls this season with a 1-12 record for games decided by 10 points or less. Combined with the inability to capitalize on free throw attempts, the 42 fouls called on Buffalo on Monday were just too steep of a slope for the Bulls to climb.
64 fouls were called in total during the basketball game. 79 free throws were shot. The lackadaisical officiating in the first half suddenly turned into a foul-calling spree as B.J. Walker of UB was called for three consecutive fouls within five seconds, with another technical foul called on the Bulls bench afterwards. All in all, the Bulls were hit with five team fouls in a matter of a minute.
"For the last 10 to 12 minutes of the game, we mixed in quite a bit of zone, and still, for that many fouls to be called against us ... I've just never seen anything like that," said UB head coach Reggie Witherspoon to WWKB AM radio in a post-game interview.
UB started off strong, keeping pace with Eastern Michigan through most of the first half. There were 10 lead changes and five ties, but Eastern Michigan pulled away late in the first and headed into halftime leading 40-31.
Despite the nine-point deficit, UB battled back through the foul trouble in the second half to come within one point. Foul trouble, however, forced their defense to fall back into a zone later into the game. As fouls were still being called left and right on the Bulls, they could only watch as the Eagles sunk 34 of 56 free throws and squashed UB's multiple comeback attempts.
"When the other team shoots 56 free throws, that doesn't leave much margin for error, and that put us in a tough situation," Witherspoon said. "When that many fouls get called against you that aren't getting called the other way, you typically have a tendency to get tentative and say to yourself 'Just let them go because every time I get near them, they call it.'"
The Bulls had four players with double-digit scoring figures, but they also watched four players foul out very early in the second half - Daniel Gilbert, B.J. Walker, Mark Bortz and Mario Jordan. The Bulls were led by Jason Bird, who finished with 15 points and a career-high nine rebounds. Davis Lawrence finished with 11 points and five rebounds. Roderick Middleton and Walker also finished with 10 points each.
"The guys gave a tremendous effort, and we had so many guys that were in foul trouble ... typically the quality of the game gets depleted when that happens, but they didn't let that happen," said Witherspoon. "We didn't have that many guys left, we only had two guys that we could use on the bench. ... I don't think the guys got pulled away mentally from it, we kept fighting and got 54 rebounds in the game."
Eastern Michigan was led by Michael Ross, who had 21 points, four rebounds, and two assists. He was 5-11 from the field and 11-for-13 from the free throw line. Steve Pettyjohn recorded a double-double with 15 points and 12 rebounds. Buffalo shot 33 more times than Eastern Michigan, but the Eagles' school record setting 34-56 foul shooting on the night could not be overcome.
"We're going to have to figure out some kind of way to not get in foul trouble," said Witherspoon of his game plan against Western Michigan.
The Bulls travel to Kalamazoo, Mich., on Wednesday for a 7 p.m. game against the Broncos.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
