 88-64 on Saturday.Nick Perkins scored 12 points before hobbling off with an injury to his lower left leg midway through the second half. Dontay Caruthers scored six straight points - including two baskets off turnovers - in capping a decisive 19-2 run by hitting two free throws to put Buffalo ahead 63-42 with 8:34 left. Caruthers finished with 11 points.The Bulls (15-1, 3-0 Mid-American Conference) extended their school-best home winning streak to 19, dating to a 73-62 loss to St. Bonaventure on Dec. 2, 2017. Buffalo has won 15 of its first 16 games for the second time in school history after going 15-1 in a 16-game season in 1929-30.Nike Sibande scored 18 points and Darrian Ringo had 10 with seven rebounds and six assists for the RedHawks (8-8, 0-3).The RedHawks were the last MAC team to defeat Buffalo by pulling out an 84-81 win at Oxford, Ohio, on Feb. 20.Miami kept the game close by hitting 50 percent of its shots through the first 26 minutes, which slowed the pace of the game and prevented Buffalo from turning to its potent transition attack.The wheels fell off the RedHawks after Mekhi Lairy scored on layup to cut Buffalo's lead to 44-40 with 14:29 remaining.The Bulls responded with Perkins taking control down low at the offensive end. He scored seven of Buffalo's next 10 points over a 2 1/2-minute span before leaving the game with 10:30 left. Perkins had just scored a contested layup at the left post when he had his leg kicked out from behind him by Sibande.Perkins had difficulty putting much weight on his left foot as he was helped off the court. He returned to the bench with about eight minutes left but did not re-enter the game.Buffalo started cold in trailing 11-3 before erupting on a 21-4 run to build a 25-15 lead with 11:24, when Jeenathan Williams completed a three-point play. Buffalo then went cold again in hitting just one field goal the rest of the half.The Bulls finished the first half hitting 9 of 28 field-goal attempts and missing 9 of 24 free-throw attempts, including Harris missing 2 of 3 after being fouled while attempting a 3-point attempt with 2 seconds left.Buffalo missed its first three field-goal attempts to start the second half before Harris hit an open 3-pointer to put the Bulls up 39-32.HI MOMFour days after scoring a career-best 34 points in a 110-80 win over Toledo, Harris was in for a family reunion. His mother, Nancy, traveled from North Carolina for the game Saturday and spent the pre-game warmup hiding in coach Nate Oats' office so she could surprise her son following the game.BIG PICTUREMiami: A young rebuilding team that starts three sophomores showed resolve in playing Buffalo tough into the second half. Junior forward Bam Bowman particularly caused Buffalo's problems from scoring in the pain.Buffalo: The Bulls deserve credit for leaning on their defense to keep them in a game until their offense finally found its legs. Buffalo has now outscored its first three MAC opponents by a combined 272-202, putting the Bulls in a position to inch up in the rankings.UP NEXT:Miami: At Toledo on Tuesday night.Buffalo: At Western Michigan on Tuesday night.---More college basketball: https://apnews.com/Collegebasketball and https://twitter.com/-Top25)
Jan 11, 2019Buffalo had some time to savor a victory over one of its main conference rivals. The Bulls' schedule gets a little more hectic this weekend.The Mid-American Conference powerhouse will play three games in seven days, beginning with a home matchup against Miami (Ohio) on Saturday afternoon.The Bulls dominated Toledo on Tuesday in a rematch of last season's MAC championship game, which Buffalo also won. Senior guard Jeremy Harris enjoyed a career night with 34 points and the 19th-ranked Bulls (14-1 overall, 2-0 conference) steamrolled the Rockets 110-80.The point total matched their season high as they shot 51.8 percent from the field, drained 15 3-pointers and committed just seven turnovers. It also established a new program record for most points in a conference game."I thought our intensity out of the gate was really good. We wanted to come out and punch them in the mouth and for the first four to eight minutes, I thought we did a really good job of that," Buffalo head coach Nate Oats said. "I wasn't happy with the way we closed the half, but our offense was clicking in the second half. For a while there, our defense was as bad as our offense was good, but once we figured that out, we were able to blow that thing wide open." Harris was the incendiary device. He not only rocked the nets by making 13 of 19 field-goal tries, including six 3-pointers, he also contributed five assists and four steals.Harris scored just nine points and missed all five of his long-range shots in the team's MAC opener against Eastern Michigan."My teammates just did a good job of finding me open shots," Harris told the Buffalo News. "I didn't shoot too many of my shots off the dribble, so all the credit to my teammates, knowing I was feeling it a little bit tonight and they found me the shots. I've been struggling, and now that I've hit a couple of shots, they want me to shoot every shot, if I can." Next week, the Bulls play at Western Michigan on Tuesday and host Eastern Michigan on FridayThe RedHawks (8-7) are seeking their first conference victory. They lost their MAC opener to Central Michigan 84-77, then dropped an 83-70 decision to Northern Illinois on Tuesday.Miami trailed throughout the second half to the Huskies. The game on Saturday will be their first road test of the conference season."We're definitely mad that we lost the first two," senior point guard Darrian Ringo told the Oxford Journal News. "We just have to keep our heads up and keep working." The RedHawks also have to travel to Toledo next week before returning home."It's tough," coach Jack Owens said to the Journal News. "You want to win every game. We have a big task on Saturday and again on Tuesday. We've just got to work to continue and get better. It's our job to keep them together. We can't feel sorry for ourselves." Miami has two players averaging double figures in points, sophomore guard Nike Sibande (16.2 ppg) and sophomore forward Dalonte Brown (15.3).--Field Level Media
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