Men’s basketball bested in final game of the season

Men’s basketball (9-22,4-14 MAC) concluded their season this week with consecutive losses. After being defeated in their last home game of the season against the Miami (OH) Redhawks (22-8,13-4 MAC), the Bulls faced the Akron Zips (25-6,17-1 MAC) this past Saturday, losing 88-70.

The first half of the contest was a nightmare scenario for UB. The Zips came into the game as the top seeded Mid-American Conference (MAC) team. Their conference leading offense showed exactly why the Zips have had such a strong regular season. 

The Bulls were outscored 47-24 in the first half. Akron was able to grab an early lead and build an immense lead in the first half off their efficient three-point shooting.

Buffalo seemed to take the second half of the game as a matter of pride. Despite the fact that this game had no implications for either team’s seasons, Buffalo showed promise in the second half. The Bulls scored 46 points, only one less than Akron scored in a half to have a huge lead. 

UB outscored their opponents by five points in the second half, but that wasn’t enough to dig themselves out of the hole they dug in the first half. 

One of the most notable stats from the contest was the disparity in the production that each team was able to get out of their rotational players. In the end, Akron had 45 points come from bench players, while Buffalo had only 25. The margin more than accounted for the deficit in the scoreboard. 

The highest scoring total by any single player was 14 points. Neither team had a player that really took command of the game through their scoring, but Akron had more players step up and contribute, leading to the loss for Buffalo.

Buffalo trailed the entire game, never tying or gaining the lead. The biggest takeaway from this game is the response that Buffalo had after a tough start to begin the game. The team rallied in the second half and played with pride to end their season.

With this loss, the team concluded their season in 11th place in the conference, missing out on the postseason for the second consecutive season. 

They compiled 9 wins and 22 losses, a slight improvement from last season when they finished 12th, last place, with a record of 4 wins and 27 losses. 

The sports desk can be reached at sports@ubspectrum.com