To the raucous crowd at Alumni Arena, the Bulls' disappointing conference record didn't matter on Monday night. With the regular season over, it was playoff time, and once again the UB faithful turned out strong to root for men's basketball, this time to a win over Ball State, 80-72.
While the seventh-seeded Bulls won the first-round playoff game, Ball State junior forward Skip Mills stole the show in front of 5,129 fans, scoring 38 points and playing the full 40 minutes.
"When tournament time comes, you have to lay everything out," Mills said. "You can't hold anything back. You have to swing for people's heads and I went out swinging."
Bulls head coach Reggie Witherspoon found out just a few minutes before he entered the press conference that Mills is a junior and will return to Ball State next year.
"I told him to leave so he couldn't put up another shot," joked Witherspoon about what he said to Mills after the game. "No, I told him he played a great game. Actually, I think I told him he had a great career. I thought it was over."
The season is over for the ninth-seeded Cardinals, however. The Bulls head to Cleveland, Ohio, for the second round of the Mid-American Conference Tournament.
Mills attempted to carry the Cardinals (10-18) to victory but Buffalo senior guard Calvin Cage chipped in 30 points for the Bulls (19-12) including 9-of-9 shooting from the free throw line.
The Cardinals came within three points twice in the second half on 54.8 percent shooting from the field in hopes of coming back from a 20-point deficit.
"Every team is going to come out and make their run," said senior forward Mario Jordan, who scored 17 points and nabbed seven rebounds for the Bulls. "College basketball is like that. They didn't want their season to end just like we didn't. We knew they were going to make their run. We just tried to dig in on defense and hope that we'd get a stop."
"They made some incredible shots," Witherspoon said. "They made some threes that hit the rim, bounced up six feet, bounced again, and then went in. I give them a lot of credit."
Cage was sent to the line with 33 seconds left after MAC Freshman of the Year Maurice Acker fouled him on a dead-ball possession with the Cardinals within three points.
"When Maurice fouled Calvin Cage, we definitely didn't want that foul there on a dead ball and I don't think Maurice intended to foul him either," said Ball State head coach Tim Buckley. "It was 75-72 with 33 seconds to go, so we would have preferred that they inbounded and trapped them and try to get them to turn it over or into somebody else's hands to see if they could make free throws."
A fast-break dunk by junior center Yassin Idbihi 17 seconds later slammed the door closed on Ball State's hopes to head deeper into the postseason.
Buffalo's next opponent is No. 1 Kent State (15-3), to whom the Bulls have lost twice this season. Kent State's most recent win came in Alumni Arena in double overtime.
"A couple of weeks ago, I had a bad taste in my mouth. I was real upset about that," Cage said. "I felt like we gave them the game when we had a chance to put them away in regulation and we just let it slip. I know as fans, you can look at the game and say 'Oh man, it was great. It went down to double overtime.' But it should have never gotten there. I have been praying for another crack at them and I got one on a neutral site, so I'm looking forward to it."
Jordan is confident that the Bulls can pull off the upset over the No. 1-ranked Kent State if Buffalo plays to its potential and doesn't get overwhelmed by the hype.
"We have to look at it like it's just another game," Jordan said. "If we go out there and play like we should, we should get the 'W.' "
Student fans that want to recreate the Sea of Blue in the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland can purchase a ticket for $10 at the Alumni Arena ticket office. The ticket allows admittance to the game and transportation via bus, departing at 2 p.m. on Thursday from Alumni Arena and returning after the game.
"We always say that we don't want to disappoint the fans," Jordan said. "When you see all the blue shirts, you want to play harder and make sure that they don't go home disappointed."
Thursday night's game is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.
