CLEVELAND, Ohio – It was predictable for the team with by far the largest rebounding margin in the league (+5.2), and sometimes what’s predictable happens exactly as predicted. For much of the evening the Buffalo Bulls doubled the Ball State Cardinals on the boards, with the rebounds evenly distributed up and down the roster. For illustration, at the under-eight media timeout in the second half, Buffalo led Ball State on the Boards 28-14, with no Buffalo player having more than 4 rebounds. And oh yes, Buffalo led on the scoreboard 47-38, and for all practical purposes the game was already over. The final margin on the boards was 36-23, and the final score was 64-52.
To Ball State’s credit, despite being pounded on the boards they managed to stay in the game into the second half, mostly on the strength of 52 percent first-half shooting, led by senior Rob Giles’ 10 first half points on 4-6 and 2-3 from the arc. But on top of the one-sided rebounding numbers, the shooting reversed in the second half, allowing the Bulls to pull away. And while Ball State did manage to cut Buffalo’s 14-point lead in half in the final six minutes of the game, before falling back and losing by 12, that “run” wasn’t real, wasn’t the kind of run that ever had a chance of catching the opponent.
It was a workmanlike effort for Buffalo, led throughout by all-league junior second guard Rodney Pierce, with 18 points on 8-14 shooting, and led in the second half by reserve junior power forward Max Boudreau, who scored 15 of his career high 21 after the intermission (he was 8-10 in the game, all from within five feet of the rim). Calvin Betts, who scored 11 and grabbed 18 rebounds the previous night in the Bulls’ win over Kent State, was quieter this night, scoring just two and pulling down five boards.
For Ball State, senior guard Laron Frazier led the team in scoring for the second night in a row, this night with 15 points, but it took him 14 shots from the field to score them (going 6-14), and most of Frazier’s points were scored long after the issue was decided. Giles finished with 13 points (on 5-10), and Freshman of the Year big man Jarrod Jones had eight (on 3-8), but his five rebounds weren’t nearly enough.
Coach Reggie Witherspoon talked about his team having played anxiously in Muncie during the regular season, losing both the rebounding battle and the game that night. “Tonight the guys were up to the challenge,” said Witherspoon. He enjoyed talking about Boudreau’s improvement this season, even in this tournament, pointing out that before coming to Buffalo, the Montreal native had played much more hockey than basketball.
Witherspoon also talked about how hard it is to get to a conference championship game, with his and his team’s last having come in 2005. Responding to our question about the powerful and balanced rebounding his team showed, he commented that “we also have perimeter guys capable of rebounding, and that helps us. But even with that, we have to work at our rebounding.” He then added what could be his mantra: “you have to work at the things you’re good at.”
Finally, when a reporter pointed out that Buffalo had been picked last in the MAC Eastern Division by many in the media, Witherspoon smiled, pointing out that “no one early gave our kids a chance.” Well, tomorrow they’ll have a chance to win the MAC tournament against Akron and go onto the NCAA Tournament. And you can bet they’ll bring that hard-working rebounding into the game with them, and pound and pound and pound.
