Third Time, Not the Charm for UB

A valiant effort from the UB Bulls Friday night at Quicken Loans Arena fell short as they lost to the Bobcats of Ohio for the third time in as many efforts this season.

This loss was the most painful of the season as the Bulls saw their chance at obtaining a bid to the NCAA tournament disappear.

A career night from the conference player of the year Mitchell Watt still wasn't enough to push the Bulls past the Bobcats. He ended with 32 points (career high) and 11 rebounds.

The Bulls had multiple looks at the end of the game. With 0:15 remaining, Watt missed on a long three but the rebound was corralled in by Zach Flizen. He then missed on a three of his own. After an Ohio miss at the free throw line, Jarod Oldham's half court heave, right on line, clanked off the back iron.

The Bulls entered the conference tournament with an overall record of 19-9 and 12-4 in conference. They clinched the number two seed by defeating Bowling Green in the regular season finale.

Ohio shot 12-25 from three point range in the game and that was the difference. Point guard D.J. Cooper hit 5 threes in the first half and ended with 18 points.

The Bulls were able to erase large deficits multiple times in the game but Ohio's 15 point lead in the second half was just too much to overcome.

Buffalo ends the year at 19-10 and will await to see if a bid to any other postseason tournaments awaits them.

Information for this post was obtained from www.ESPN.com

Play-Action Sports: February 1st 2012

Men's Basketball:

Buffalo 73 Ball St. 57: Make it five in a row for the UB Bulls as they were able to pick up their sixth conference win and 13th overall on the year with a 73-57 win over Ball State in Alumni Arena. Mitchell Watt loaded up the stat sheet for the Bulls as he racked up 20 points, 7 rebounds, 5 blocks and 4 assists. Zach Filzen added 14 and Javon McCrea 10 as the Bulls were able to shoot 54% from the floor (52.6% from three). They also out-rebounded the Cardinals 35-20.

St Bonaventure 62 St Louis 86: The Bonnies suffered a setback Wednesday night as they suffered a 24 point loss at the hands of the Saint Louis Billikens. The team lost their grasp on first place in the conference and dropped to 12-8 (5-3). Andrew Nicholson was a non-factor in the game as he was constantly in foul trouble, playing only ten minutes and scoring just two points. Saint Louis had five players in double figures and were led by Kwamain Mitchell who had 22. Dwayne Evans added a double-double as well with 10 points and 11 rebounds.

The Week Ahead : 1/29-2/4

Another new segment to Downtown Sports! In this part I will be giving everyone a look ahead at the games on tap for all area teams.

Make sure you check back for updates, reviews, recaps, and interviews.

Hockey:

Buffalo Sabres
Tuesday Jan 31st: @ Montreal Canadiens 7:30pm (MSG)
Wednesday Feb 1st: New York Rangers 7:30pm (NBCSN)
Saturday Feb 4th: @ New York Islanders 7:00pm (MSG)

Men's Basketball:

Saint Bonaventure Bonnies
Wednesday Feb 1st: @ St. Louis 8:00pm

Syracuse Orange
Saturday Feb 4th: @ St. John's 12:00pm

Buffalo Bulls
Wednesday Feb 1st: Ball State 7:00pm
Saturday Feb 4th" @ Toledo 7:00pm

Niagara Purple Eagles
Friday Feb 3rd: @ Fairfield 7:30pm

Canisius Golden Griffins
Thursday Feb 2nd: @ Iona 7:00pm
Saturday Feb 4th: @ Marist 7:00pm

Play-Action Sports: January 28th 2012

Here is a new segment to Downtown Sports. In this section I will be having multiple recaps and scores from nights when multiple teams in the area play.

Men's Basketball:

Buffalo 74 Northern Illinois 59: The UB men (12-6, 5-2) picked up their 4th straight win Saturday night by taking care of business on the road against Illinois 74-59. Javon McCrea had a double-double for the Bulls with 14 points and 12 rebounds. Zach Filzen had 12 and Mitchell Watt also added 10 in a collective effort. Ten different Bulls scored in the game as they were able to close to within a half-game of conference leading Akron.

St. Bonaventure 62 Richmond 47: Andrew Nicholson 14 points (6-7 FG) and 8 rebounds for St. Bomaventure as they were able to stay in first place in the Atlantic 10 with a 62-47 home win against the Spiders of Richmond. They improved to 12-7 and 5-2 in conference play. The Bonnies out rebounded Richmond 39-23 and had four players total in double figures.

Bulls Move into Second in MAC East

The men's basketball team at the University of Buffalo are starting to peak at the right time as they currently sit in second place in the MAC East standings, one game behind defending champion Akron.

They improved their record to 11-6 (4-2) yesterday by defeating Eastern Michigan (9-11, 4-2) 65-47 inside Alumni Arena.

The Eagles are known for their slow offensive pace but the Bulls were able to hold them to under 50 points and 34% from the floor. The Bulls on the other hand shot 46% from the field as well as 43% from three point range.

Javon McCrea led the way for the Bulls with 17 points but not far behind him was Zach Filzen and Mitchell Watt with 16 and 14 points respectively. Filzen was 5-10 from beyond the arch and Watt added 9 rebounds to his point total.

The Bulls only held a one point lead 24-23 at the midway point but were able to pull away from the Eagles in the second half, out-scoring them 41-24.

The team now will play a string of five games against MAC West teams, the much weaker of the two divisions and will then play their final five against the East.

UB Men Tourney Bound?

For the first time in years the Bulls have made Joe Lunardi's column on ESPN.com "Bracketology".

The weekly feature predicts the possible "March Madness" bracket we all know so well. Lunardi is known to be very accurate with his final bracket but this week's edition is nowhere near that.

There are still 2 full months of regular season play to go as well as the all important MAC Tournament for the Bulls.

All this prediction seems to mean is that Lunardi believes that UB could be the favorite going into the tournament in Cleveland, Ohio. The MAC Champion gets an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament.

UB has come very close to clinching their first ever NCAA Tournament bid a few times. The Bulls have lost in the MAC Championship game twice, 2005 and 2009.

The 2005 game was a heartbreaking loss to Ohio on a buzzer beating tip in at the end of overtime. The 2009 game was a lot more one-sided as Akron beat the favored Bulls by 12.

What UB really needs to aim for right now is a top 4 seed in MAC Regular Season play, which will earn them the right to a bye into the quarterfinals of the tournament.

UB will not have any easy road to this coveted bye. The MAC East, where UB plays is much tougher than the MAC West this year.

Akron, UB, Ohio, Kent State & Bowling Green are all potential MAC East winners and will be fighting for the 4 byes along with Ball State and Toledo from the West along with others.

While this prediction really has no true worth it is nice to look ahead and see what could be in March.

McCrea Dominant as Bulls Take Down Youngstown St.

Javon McCrea took his game to a new level Saturday as he and his teammate Mitchell Watt collected double doubles in an 80-72 win over Youngstown State.

The Bulls had one of their best shooting nights of the year as they were 50% from the floor.

UB trailed at half 39-38 but came out of the break energized as McCrea scored the first six points for the Bulls. McCrea ended the night with 29 points and 13 rebounds. Dominant was an understatement to describe his game tonight. The most impressive stat for McCrea on the night was his effectiveness from the floor. He was a remarkable 14-17 from the field.

Bulls forward Mitchell Watt had a solid game as well with 20 points and 10 rebounds. Watt also added four huge blocks to keep the Bulls in front down the stretch.

Kendrick Perry lead the Penguins with 18 points. Blake Allen and Ashen Ward also added 17 each but it wasn't enough to take down the Bulls. The loss drops Youngstown St. to 6-3 (1-1 in Horizon).

The Bulls seem to be playing strong basketball right now as this win ups their win total to six on the year (6-2). They're next game may be the toughest yet as they will travel on the road to take on the Cougars of BYU. (Dec. 20)

UB Defeats Rival Niagara on the Road

Buffalo used a strong showing from their bench tonight as they were able to pick up a big road win over rival, and MAAC opponent Niagara.

UB was lead by guard Zach Filzen who played 37 of the 40 minutes and had 16 points and 3 assists. He was 4-12 from three point range and perfect from the line. Filzen was helped out by forward Javon McCrea who didn't have the offensive performance he is accustomed to but had a game high 13 rebounds as UB out-rebounded Niagara 45-26.

The Bulls got huge contributions from their bench as they scored 39 of the teams' 82 total points. Titus Robinson and Tony Watson II both lead the team off the bench with each scoring 12 points. They both played quality minutes as well as Robinson played 22 and Watson, 24.

All five Niagara starters were in double figures but that was all the offense the Purple Eagles got. They struggled from the field as they only shot 35.3% from the field. Marvin Jordan and Juan'ya Green both had 16 to lead their team in scoring.

The win gets UB back on track and improves their record to 5-2 while Niagara falls to a dismal 3-6. Buffalo's next game is this Saturday when they take on Youngstown State at Alumni Arena.

Other UB preformers: Mitchell Watt 10/7/3, Jarod Oldham 6/2/1, Auraum Nuiriankh 5/6/1, Dave Barnett 9/4/2, Corey Raley-Ross 2/0/0, Xavier Ford 4/1/0

UB Takes Down A-10 Foe Dayton

The UB men's basketball team went into Dayton, Ohio Wednesday night and came up with a huge win against the Flyers of that very city.

The Bulls were far superior from start to finish as they jumped out to a 16 point lead at halftime and never relinquished that lead. They finished off the Flyers in the second half winning by 29 points by a score of 84-55 and leading by as many as 34.

UB was lead by Zach Filzen who had a game high 24 points. Three other Bulls were in double figures as Mitchell Watt had a double-double with 16 points, 11 rebounds, and 7 assists. Javon McCrea and Tony Watson each had 17 and 10 points respectively.

The Bulls shot 50% from the field in this game as well as just under 44% from thee-point range.

Dayton was held to their lowest scoring output of the year as they shot a very measly 28% from the floor. Chris Johnson lead the way for the Flyers with 12 points and Kevin Dillard had 11.

With this loss, Dayton drops to 5-2 and sees their five game winning streak come to an end. They will head on the road next to take on Murray State, December 4th. For the Bulls, they improve to 4-1 and will host Saint Bonaventure on Saturday.

Bulls Dominate Both Sides of Ball; Win Big at Home

With a 2-8 record coming into today’s contest against the Akron Zips, the University at Buffalo Bull’s football season had not gone the way the team, or head coach Jeff Quinn would have liked. They were able to put the past ten games behind them today as they played inspired football and played their best game of the season as they were able to pick up an impressive 51-10 win.

This was the first time the Bulls put up 50 points in a game since 1992. The game started off fast as Brandon Murie returned the opening kickoff 93 yards down to the Akron one yard line. That was followed by a quick one yard score by Brandon Oliver which made the score 7-0. Quinn said of that kickoff return, “I knew at that point, our kids were ready to play.”

The Bulls were far from done there as they quickly forced an Akron three and out. They then drove down the field in less than four minutes for a 9 play, 77 yard drive which was capped off by a ten yard touchdown pass from Chazz Anderson to Fred Lee. This was a common theme for the Bulls as their average scoring drive of the game was only 2 minutes and 54 seconds.

Brandon Oliver had a big day for UB as he rushed for 71 yards in the first quarter and 131 total in the first half. He added 4 receptions for 38 yards as well in that half. He ended the game with 235 yards on 29 carries, setting a new single game rushing record for the University. He broke the old record set by James Starks in 2007 when he rushed for 231 in a game against Toledo. “When you call his number, you just don’t even know what’s going to happen” said Quinn. “He just inspires you, and creates a positive energy on our sidelines.”

Efficient football was the best way to describe the Bulls today. They were able to score quickly and often all day and added multiple big stops on defense as they allowed 239 total yards, and only 85 in the first half.

Quarterback Chazz Anderson had a solid game for the Bulls throwing for 155 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions. He was helped by the running game today as it opened up the field for him to complete passes to seven different wide receivers. “When you run the ball effectively, you open it up for quick passes” said Anderson. The offensive line was helpful to Anderson and Oliver as the protection was great all day.

With all of the yards and touchdowns today, the defenses’ play may be overlooked, but it shouldn’t. They were active all day creating havoc as they got to the quarterback three times, had eight tackles for loss, and had one forced fumble. Sophomore standout linebacker, Khalil Mack in specific had a terrific game with two sacks, five total tackles, three of which were for a loss, and a forced fumble. Coach Quinn said of Mack’s performance; “That’s the Khalil I love… and I look forward to seeing him play next week.”

Maybe the most underrated part of today’s performance for Buffalo was the kicking of true freshman Patrick Clarke. Clarke recently replaced Peter Fardon after multiple weeks of heartbreaking losses with missed field goals and extra points. Clarke was 3-3 on field goals today as he made lengths of 26, 41, and 49. He was perfect on extra points as well and he looks like a find for Coach Quinn in the future.

The Bulls will finish their season out next Friday at home when they host Bowling Green at noon. They will look to play the same style of football next week as they will hope to carry this momentum further and into next season.