Buffalo Bulls to face Akron in MAC Championship
Cleveland, OH- The nightcap Men’s semi-final game was a heavyweight bout that saw the 2nd-seeded Ohio Bobcats face off against the 3rd-seeded Bulls of Buffalo. The Bobcats sported the MAC player of the year in Antonio Campbell who averaged 17.6 PPG during the regular season. The Bulls looked towards a return to the MAC championship to defend their title.
The first half got off to a sluggish start offensively for both teams. The first ten minutes of the half only yielded a combined 27 points and neither team shot better than 33% from the field. The stifled offenses were less a product of great defense and more a product of blown layups and shoddy shooting from the perimeter by both teams.
Towards the end of the first half the shooting warmed up a little bit for both teams as the percentages crept up near the 40-45% range from the field. Buffalo started to pull away with a minute and a half until halftime, taking a double-digit lead at 36-24. The score at the midway break was 41-29 in favor of the Buffalo Bulls. Nick Perkins and Willie Connor led the scoring for Buffalo 12 points a piece; the leading scorer for the Bobcats was Antonio Campbell with 11.
Both teams seemed to benefit from the halftime shoot around, the Bobcats started the half 4-5 and the Bulls started 3-4 from the field. The score after three minutes of play was 53-40 in favor of the Bulls. Nobody wanted to miss in the second half, a far cry from the first half of play. Ohio went on a 10-3 run to pull within five with 14 minutes to play. Buffalo’s Willie Connor took matters into his own hands to stop the bleeding, hitting a three pointer and layup to push the lead back up to ten points, making the score 60-50.
The Bobcats got the deficit under double digits at 67-58; Ohio started to make a few shots and Buffalo’s offense became stagnant and ineffective with less than 10 minutes to play in the game. Two straight offensive fouls going against Buffalo allowed Ohio to once again cut the lead down to five, making it 67-62. The Bulls went on a 12-2 run that opened up a fifteen-point lead on the Bobcats that all but ended the game. Buffalo emerged victorious, the final score on the jumbo-tron at The Q read 88-74.
Buffalo will play Akron in the MAC Championship tomorrow.
