A small gym combined with a large crowd means adversity for the away team.
Wednesday night, the men's basketball team found this out firsthand as they stepped into a packed Gallagher Center and tried to avoid falling under .500.
The Bulls (4-3) traveled over the Grand Island Bridge for a matchup with rival Niagara in front of an acclimated NU student body. Buffalo, however, didn't show up empty-handed.
True Blue was in full throat and helped the Bulls upset the Purple Eagles (6-4, 2-0 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference), 86-80.
Head coach Reggie Witherspoon noted the difficult nature of the raucous crowd.
'It was like a high school environment,' Witherspoon said. 'Every time a basket is scored there is some loud cheering from somewhere. It does a lot for momentum shifts and that makes it tough.'
Senior guard Rodney Pierce turned in his best performance of the short season, scoring 25 points and grabbing nine rebounds. He attributed his success to the mentality he brought to the game.
'I was just aggressive for the whole 40 minutes,' Pierce said. 'I wasn't scoring all the time either; I was passing [as well] so I think that helped my team.'
The two teams battled hard in the first half as the Bulls held a slight advantage, 40-38, heading into the locker room.
After a short technical delay at the start of the second half, Niagara forward Demetrius Williamson threw down a rim-rattling dunk that sent the Purple Eagle fans into a frenzy.
The Bulls quickly answered to quiet the crowd with a 12-1 run that gave the Bulls a 67-51 with 7:01 remaining in the game.
Niagara senior guard Tyrone Lewis then decided to take charge for the Purple Eagles. Quiet for most of the game, Lewis hit back-to-back 3-point baskets to bring the Purple Eagles to within five with 3:39 left.
Lewis made six 3-pointers in the game and became the school's all-time leader for 3-pointers made.
The Bulls stopped the Purple Eagles' run when senior forward Calvin Betts hit an open layup off of an assist from senior guard John Boyer. Pierce then sank a trey to extend the Buffalo to 76-66 with only 1:27 left on the clock.
Just when they looked out for the count, Niagara made another run and cut the lead down to three points after a 3-point play by senior guard Rob Garrison and another pair Lewis 3-point baskets.
But the Bulls converted on their free throws down the stretch and denied Niagara any hope for a comeback.
Witherspoon said after the game that Pierce and Betts have really stepped up to the challenge of being leaders.
'When we came back from Purdue we had a meeting,' Witherspoon said. 'What I thought came out of that meeting [was] that we have these two [Pierce and Betts], who were able to take the load. We were able to get into them and not necessarily for one particular thing, but certainly in determination.'
The intensity was high throughout the game. Witherspoon liked the effort from his team, but also thinks there is still room to improve.
'I thought it was a hard fought game,' Witherspoon said. 'We came in and wanted to cut down on the space they had to drive the ball to the basket and contest their threes. I thought we did that at times but we have some things we have to work on.'
The Bulls received some unexpected help in the game, mainly from sophomore guard Dave Barnett, who scored six points and grabbed two rebounds in 17 minutes. Witherspoon thought that the play of some of the unknown guys was a key to the victory.
'One of the other things that really helped us was to be able to get contributions from guys that had not played a lot,' Witherspoon said. '[Those contributions] were helpful because sometimes in an environment like this you can run out of breath. We didn't get those kinds of quality minutes in our last outing so it was good to get them here.'
Niagara head coach Joe Mihalich said after the game that the Bulls always play tough and physical.
'[The Bulls] are a physical team,' Mihalich said. 'When you play against them there aren't a lot of clean plays. You're going to get banged, bumped and hit, and I don't mean get fouled, just that it's going to be a physical game. They played better than us and they deserved to win.'
The Bulls return home for a matchup against the Buffalo State Bengals on Saturday at Alumni Arena. Tip-off is scheduled for 2 p.m.
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