CLEVELAND, Ohio – Stronger on the boards (mostly due to 18 rebounds from 6-3 Calvin Betts, listed as a guard), the Buffalo Bulls pushed the Kent State Golden Flashes around all afternoon long, but could never shake them. Then, after senior Greg Gamble hit one of two at the line with 22 seconds left in the game, Kent had the ball down by three. Coach Geno Ford might have said “get a quick two,” but nothing developed quickly for point guard Al Mincy (who twice previously in the final two minutes had taken the ball 94 feet to paydirt). Then, with under 10 seconds on the clock, Mincy saw an opening and knifed toward the goal. But with so little time left, Ford no longer wanted a two-point shot, and utilized that awful rule to call timeout from the bench with Mincy about to lay up. That left seven seconds left, Kent State ball out-of-bounds under the basket, needing a trey to tie.
Mincy, the trigger man, saw Al Fisher in the corner to his right, and tossed a short pass in Fisher’s direction. The ball never got there, as Buffalo senior Andy Robinson deflected the pass, then as the ball bounced toward the end-line, Robinson alertly lunged for it, and in a “flash” slammed it off of Fisher’s lower body and out-of-bounds. Buffalo ball with five seconds to go; game over.
All night long Kent had played from behind, trying to win despite a subpar performance from former Player of the Year Fisher. Al finished with just nine points, on 2-14 shooting, including just 1-3 from the arc. Credit Buffalo’s perimeter and interior defense, but in truth Fisher had a ton of looks near the basket, and this night the league’s best finisher couldn’t close the deal.
Kent battled and battled. Its only two post-players, undersized Jullian Sullinger and Chris Singletary, were saddled all night with fouls, both playing just 14 minutes before fouling out. It should be here noted that while Singletary was ejected just 90 seconds into Sunday’s rivalry game against Akron for throwing a punch at Akron’s Nate Linhart, and suspended for the opening round tournament game against Toledo, he also brings the toughness and fearlessness to the floor that coaches need to coach and win. Tonight in just those 14 minutes, in what may be the final game of his career, Singletary contributed 13 big points on 5-7 shooting, mostly on post-ups and driving to the rim.
Back to the game, with Buffalo out-rebounding the Flashes, when Buffalo’s Titus Robinson (no relation to Andy) hit a trey at 13:30 of the first half, the Bulls had a ten-point lead at 25-15. Andy Robinson’s jumper at 15:19 restored that margin at 29-19. But over the final 4:21 of the half, Kent went on a run that temporarily saved the game, closing out the first half 11-2 to trail by just 1 at intermission, 31-30.
The game see-sawed up and down early in the second half, with Singletary keeping Kent State in the game early in the half. Five times in the second stanza Kent State led by three, and on three of those five occasions the Flashes had the ball with an opportunity to extend their lead. They would never do so.
Then, with Sullinger and Singletary mostly on the bench, and the Flashes often playing four guards with either Brandon Parks or Anthony Simpson, the Bulls reasserted themselves defensively and on the boards, extending to a five-point lead at 17:48. The Flashes didn’t quit, pressing full-court with that four-guard alignment, and committing four fouls to extend the game in the final two minutes. But try as they might, the Flashes couldn’t get that one big steal that they needed to catch up. And with Buffalo hitting 6 of its 8 free throws in the last two minutes, they were able to hold on against gritty Kent State.
Statistically, reserve forward Max Boudreau led a balanced Buffalo attack with 13 points on 4-7 shooting, including the finish of a gorgeous pick and roll with Gamble that gave Buffalo that five point lead with just over two minutes to play. Betts, who was held scoreless when Kent State beat Buffalo at Kent last week, added 11 on 3-8 shooting, and those monstrous 18 boards. (Pound for pound – or inch for inch – Betts could be the best rebounder I’ve seen this year.)
Singletary’s 13 led Kent State, Evans had 11 (on 4-11 and 2-6 shooting) and Mincy had 10. Playing off the bench, junior forward Anthony Simpson stemmed the tide on the boards for Kent State, pulling down 12 rebounds – six at the offensive end – and contributing eight points.
Buffalo Coach Reggie Witherspoon talked about Betts’ play, suggesting that hitting his first couple of shots gave the young man confidence, which helped his defense and rebounding as well as his offense. He also said that as good as Al Fisher is for Kent State, he and his staff had decided to pressure him all over the court, particularly with the ball, hoping he’d get tired before they did. At least this night, that strategy worked. Witherspoon then told us that he’d scrimmaged against Fisher when he was a freshman at Siena, and “[after coming to this league,] I’d have been happy if he stated at Siena.” He then complimented his own freshmen, Mitchell Watt and Titus Robinson, “it’s unusual to be competing for first place in a conference with freshmen on the floor.”
Ford was complimentary of Buffalo, saying that “they’re bigger, stronger, more athletic, and went after every ball.” He bemoaned the fact that a number of times his team had the ball up three, and thought both Fisher and Anthony Simpson had point-blank looks they couldn’t put that would have extended the Flashes’ lead to five.
Ford agreed that Buffalo made Fisher work hard, that he himself had put the ball in Fisher’s hands an inordinate amount in the second half of Sunday’s win against Akron and in the first round win against Northern Illinois. Still, he was surprised at Fisher’s inability to finish plays this night, calling his 5-11 guard “the best finisher around the rim in this history of this conference.” He also talked about the toughness of Chris Singletary, saying that “few kids really want the ball at crunch time, Chris does. And he wants to guard the opposition’s best player, box out their best rebounder on the weak side.”
Finally, addressing strength of schedule in connection with a question about a possible NIT bid, Ford commented about his difficult non-conference schedule, emulating that traditionally played by Miami. “In this day and age, if you play 33 games, you can schedule yourself 20 wins. We made a schedule designed to get us an at-large bid, but weren’t able to win those tough games.” Kent is 19-14, hoping for a bid somewhere.
Buffalo on the other hand is already preparing for Ball State, which it lost to in Muncie the only time the teams met during the regular season. That game will be Friday night at 7:30.
