By Budd Bailey
For those looking for signs of life from the University at Buffalo’s men’s basketball team, Monday’s game with North Carolina A&T showed the Bulls are developing a steady heartbeat.
The Bulls took an 82-81 decision that had the 1,181 in attendance ready to whistle a happy tune as they headed home after it was over. After all, UB erased a four-point deficit in the final 21 seconds for a memorable victory.
It was enough to make everyone forget Buffalo’s loss to Bryant at home a mere 11 days ago. The Bulls flat-lined in that one, falling behind by scores of 18-0 and 47-18 in a game that offered virtually no entertainment value for the UB faithful.
This one showed that the team’s rebuilding program is headed in the right direction. It’s one thing to be competitive; it’s another to figure out a way to win.
“I’m so proud of our team tonight,” coach George Halcovage III said. “They faced every situation you could find tonight in the game, whether it was being up early, letting our lead slide a little bit, going in tied at halftime, going down early in the second half, and being down late. … We fought back. Every guy that went in stepped up for us. In the end, we had enough and got it done.”
Consider the particulars of the finish of Monday’s game. The Bulls closed to within 78-77 on a basket by Ryan Sabol with 2:45 left. But they didn’t score a single point for the next 2:32, thanks in part to some problems inbounding the basketball, as the contest tightened. Luckily, the Aggies only scored three points of their own in that span, including a free throw by Ryan Forrest with 21 seconds left to make it a four-point lead.
The Bulls raced down the court, and Sabol connected on a quick three to cut the margin to one. UB had little choice but to foul, and Johnathan Lamothe went to the line on a front end of a one-and-one. He missed the initial shot, giving Buffalo the chance for the lead.
The next play was a little unexpected. Forrest bumped into Tyson Dunn of UB around the midcourt line, and a foul was called with eight seconds left. Sometimes calls like that aren’t made in the final seconds, but this one was.
“I don’t think Tyson was surprised they called a foul,” Halcovage said. “They were up on him, they bumped him. He’s a really heady player at point guard. He’s good at angles. You try to draw the foul. If you get it, great.”
Dunn made both free throws to give the Bulls the lead. As expected, Landon Glasper had the last shot for NC A&T – a good choice considering he had 29 points and was 6 of 12 from three-point land at that point. But his hurried hoist missed the target, and the ball went out of bounds off an Aggie with a half-second left. The Bulls ran out the clock for the win.
“It’s really exciting,” Sabol said. “We work on that in practice all the time. When it came time to do it in a game, I knew we’d remember what we did in practice. You just have to enjoy it. We stayed together as a team.”
UB had many good moments in this game, which was competitive throughout. The Bulls’ offense moved the ball well for long stretches, and played with intensity. Morgan State put on a late rally in the first half to tie the game after 20 minutes, and the Aztecs continued that momentum to go up by 55-49. But UB responded; Sabol scored eight points in four minutes early in the second half to lead the charge. But the Bulls trailed for most of the stretch drive; they didn’t lead at any point in the final 9:46 until the last eight seconds.
“I would have liked to have gone into Thanksgiving with a little less stress, but maybe I’ll enjoy the turkey a little more,” Halcovage said. “They are a really high-powered offense when they get going. They’ve got some incredible individual players. We knew Glasper could get it going, and he did. We couldn’t let Forrest go. We did a really good job on him (11 points).”
Sabol finished with 22 points, while Anquan Boldin had 14 points, Ben Michaels scored 13 and Dunn added 12. As you’d expect, most of the team statistics were quite close.
It was a good follow-up to Friday’s win over Morgan State at home. And here’s a bit more of good news for the University at Buffalo program: The Bulls improved their record to 4-3 with the win. Therefore, UB has won as many games before the end of November this season as it did in all of the 2023-24 campaign (4-27).
“It’s just us maturing as a team,” Boldin said.
“We look at these things one game at a time,” Halcovage said. “Last year, I was so proud of that entire team sticking together until the end. That team had a lot of adversity. A lot of balls didn’t bounce our way last year. That happens. The guys that are here now, they remember those moments. … We use last year to remember some moments, like when we were in Richmond and fought back to have a chance.”
It’s going to be tough to add to that win total in the near future. Buffalo has four road games coming up in December: Penn State, St. Bonaventure, Georgia and Temple. Those all will be tough. There’s only one home game between now and January 7 – a matchup with Pitt-Bradford on December 3.
“We told these guys we’re not playing an easy schedule,” Halcovage said. “We want to be prepared to go into MAC play and not be phased by anything. When we get to MAC play, we’ll have played in tough road environments, tough teams. …. We wanted these guys to understand that we’re capable of competing anywhere we go. We have to have a growth mindset, and that’s what this nonconference is about. I’m really excited and hope we’ll be able to grow after winning these last two games.”
(Follow Budd on X.com via @WDX2BB)
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