BUFFALO BASKETBALL'S BUMMER WEEKEND

PLUS: Field notes from a big-time St. Bonaventure MBB upset win over VCU

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It was that kind of weekend, again, for University at Buffalo men’s and women’s basketball.

For the second weekend in a row, both squads lost on their days off from pencils, books, and teachers’ dirty looks. The UB men’s basketball team is 3-9 in weekend games this season, while the women are 3-3 with one game (vs. Princeton) canceled. Maybe there’s something to be said about the focus of the work week.

• The Buffalo men put up a solid effort against Mid-American Conference co-leader Kent State on Friday night at the M.A.C. Center in suburban Cleveland before falling, 74-68. The Bulls (10-11 overall, 4-4 in Mid-American Conference play, 163rd in the NCAA NET rankings ) fell behind, 11-0, in the first five minutes of the game but never quite let the Golden Flashes (17-4, 7-1, 56th in NCAA NET, #4 in the Mid-Major Top 25) get too comfortable.

• The UB women’s basketball season may have hit its nadir on Saturday evening, as the team found itself on the wrong end of a 69-47 road decision against a tough Akron squad. Head Coach Becky Burke’s Bulls (8-9, 3-5, 212th in NCAA NET) kept the game close through a rock fight of a first half—the two teams combined to shoot 26 percent (15-of-58) from the field—before the Zips (14-5, 5-3, 136th in NCAA NET) found their range in the final two quarters and put this one away. Buffalo has now lost four straight MAC games after winning three in a row.

Let’s take a closer look.

UB Men’s Hoops Show Us Something In Kent State Loss

Considering they just finished an end-to-end win over visiting Buffalo in which they never trailed and led by as many as 15 points in the second half, the Kent State men’s basketball team didn’t look particularly jubilant after its 74-68 home win over the Bulls on Friday. They looked tired.

Maybe it was their late night on Thursday at the Greater Cleveland Sports Awards, where Golden Flashes guard Sincere Carry was named GCSA Male Collegiate Athlete of the Year. Or maybe it was because Buffalo, in the face of adversity, refused to go away.

The Basketball Wasn’t Pretty, But Blue Collar Bulls Don’t Quit

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Let’s be real—from a technical perspective, this game was a scoresheet debacle.

• There’s the aforementioned 11-0 hole to start the game (how embarrassing is it to go into the first media timeout with a point?), a sequence that included seven misses, three blocked shots, and three turnovers.

• We’ve talked for weeks about the bad things that happen when UB starts a game cold—well, they shot 27 percent in the first half, and a marginally better 39 percent in the second. We’ve discussed the problems with turnovers—Buffalo had 15, which, unfortunately, was right on point with its season average. We noted the importance of winning the rebounding battle, and its correlation with Bulls victories—the Flashes were stronger on the boards, grabbing 44 missed shots to UB’s 42.

• Buffalo’s a running team and finished with just two(!) fastbreak points. That makes winning almost impossible, especially when falling behind, because the Bulls are not a good team from three, something they proved yet again on Friday—although junior swingman Isaiah Adams (pictured above) was a respectable four-of-11 from distance, the rest of the team went three-for-18. That’s one make in six for any math stragglers.

Kent State had something to do with all of this, of course. The Flashes are 41st in the country in scoring defense, allowing 63.8 points per game. Rob Senderoff’s team aggressively doubles the ball, creating constant discomfort and rushed decision-making. This pressure suffocates offenses to the tune of 39.8 percent shooting from the field (17th in Division 1 hoops). KSU is 135th in the nation in blocks with 3.5 per game—and junior forward Chris Payton, a Pitt transfer¹, had five of his own on Friday (the team had eight). Buffalo prides itself on its sleight of hand, collecting 8.4 steals per game, 42nd in D1—Kent State is 15th nationally with 9.5.

And yet.

Seeing the Good Things In a Bad Game

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We loved the hard work and emotion from 6’9 junior center Jonnivius Smith (pictured above), whose strength and heart we once questioned. Although he scored just four points and grabbed three boards in 14 minutes, Smith seemed, at moments, like he was the heart and strength of the Bulls on Friday. He showed no fear battling the 6’7 Payton, 6’8 Miryne Thomas, and 6’9 Cli-Ron Hornbeak in the paint, a fearsome place on Friday as the refs just let ‘em play.²

It’s great watching junior swingman Isaiah Adams round into form. The former Mr. Basketball from Florida and transfer from UCF has been this season’s version of Maceo Jack—a dominant physical specimen who’s electrifying if flashes, confounding in others.

Adams’ decision-making seems greatly improved since junior guard Zid Powell returned to the lineup—perhaps a little less of a tendency, conscious or otherwise, to play hero ball—and the end result is he has, in fact, looked more like a hero. He was seven-of-15 from the floor against Kent State for a team-high 23 points, and nimble on defense.

Adams was often matched against Carry (pictured below), who, yes, scored 24 points, but not many of those buckets were easy. As a viewer, it was a fun game-within-the-game, and Carry was forced to dip into his shotmaking repertoire as well as his passing bag en route to seven slick dimes. He’s good.

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• Senior LaQuill Hardnett recorded a double-double against the brutal Flashes’ frontcourt, collecting 11 points and a game-high 12 rebounds.

• Sophomore guard Kidtrell Blocker continued his emergence with seven points and two assists in 16 minutes.

• Fifth year guard Armoni Foster collected five assists, the eighth time in nine games he’s had at least five, and was cursed with a handful of misses at the rim that just wouldn’t roll the right way—which just seems to be his fate this season.

• Powell willed himself to 11 points on a tough night where he wasn’t getting his usual calls around the bucket.

Consistency remains an issue, and a lot of this problem is youth, inexperience, and bad luck. Sophomore guard Curtis Jones isn’t going to go one-for-13 very often. Freshman center Isaac Jack was limited to nine ineffective minutes because, well, he’s a freshmen going up against Kent State’s grown men in the paint.

Powell, by dint of who he is as a slasher and shooter, is going to have off nights—and even he, the basketball nomad, probably hasn’t faced many organized defensive efforts like the one the Flashes presented him with on Friday.

Look, there’s a reason Kent State has won 17 straight home games, the second-longest streak in the country. UB was served a harsh learning experience, but rather than fold, freak out, or sulk, they stuck to their game plan and gave a very good team a very tough game.

Bulls Head Back Home for Another Test

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Buffalo can do Kent State a favor when Akron (15-6, 7-1, 119th in NCAA NET) comes to Alumni Arena on Tuesday night for a 7 p.m. game (ESPN+). If the Bulls can clip the Zips—who, while winners of six in a row, are 3-3 on the road—and the Flashes beat Central Michigan (not a guarantee!³), KSU takes sole possession of first place in the MAC.

Win or lose, UB’s likely in for another tough night. From George M. Thomas of BeaconJournal.com:

The University of Akron men’s basketball team jumped out to a 17-point halftime lead and held for its sixth consecutive win, 83-77 over Ohio in a Mid-American Conference game Saturday afternoon at Rhodes Arena.

Zips forward Enrique Freeman played a powerful game to notch yet another double-double with a game-high 32 points and 15 rebounds. Guard Xavier Castaneda added 16 points for UA (15-6, 7-1).

Jaylin Hunter led the Bobcats (11-10, 3-5) with 16 points and four rebounds.

Offense was the theme of the day for both teams. The Zips shot 56% from the floor (28 of 50), including 56% from behind the 3-point line (9 of 16), and Ohio converted 52% (29 of 56) of its attempts.

Castaneda is one-tenth of a point behind Eastern Michigan’s Emoni Bates for the conference scoring lead (20.3 points per game to 20.4). Castaneda dropped 32 in each of his previous two games, so don’t expect him to be “held” to 16, necessarily.

Just need to score more than the other guys! We’ll see how it goes. Horns up, etc.

Struggling UB Women Fall Flat From the Floor in Akron; Losing Skid Hits Four

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Nine to eight, Bulls, at the end of the first quarter. Twenty-five to 19, Akron, at the half. Forty-five to 36, Akron, at the end of three.

The UB women’s basketball team couldn’t get a g.d. shot to fall in this game—the Bulls were 12-of-46 through the first three quarters (although, somewhat surprisingly, a respectable five-for-16 from three)—but there was, heading into that fourth quarter, the semblance of light at the end of the tunnel. A nine-point lead isn’t impossible to overcome.

Until, of course, it is. Akron shot a cool nine-of-13 from the floor in the final 10 minutes while Buffalo fizzled to a five-of-18 finish, earning nary a trip to the free throw line in the process. That’s how you end up with a 22-point loss after keeping the game reasonably close.

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From UBBulls.com:

The University at Buffalo women's basketball team (8-9, 3-5 MAC) got behind early and struggled offensively as they failed to mount a comeback in a 69-47 loss at Akron on Saturday afternoon.

Three Bulls scored in double figures on the day led by freshman Hattie Ogden who recorded a career-high 15 points, including five threes. It is the first time a Bull has recorded five made threes in a game this season. Fifth year guard Jazmine Young scored 12 points and her backcourt mate Zakiyah Winfield recorded her 11^th double-double of the season with 11 points and 10 rebounds to go with four assists. …

The Zips opened the fourth quarter on a 7-0 run before (guard Re’Shawna) Stone scored from the baseline and Young followed with a mid-range jumper in traffic to limit the damage, but the Zips maintained a 54-40 lead at the 5:50 mark. The Zips extended their run to 11-0 out of the media timeout and that was more than enough to put the game out of reach.

Buffalo made just 17 field goals on the day, the second fewest total this season, while the Zips shot 50.9% from the floor, including 11 makes from behind the arc. The Bulls scored 13 points off Akron turnovers and recorded eight fastbreak points, but the Zips capitalized inside, outscoring UB 24-12 in the paint.

It may not seem like much, but this is an unusually critical writeup by the UB athletics communication staff.⁴ Maybe the Dallas Cowboys started something. You can feel the frustration between the lines, which makes sense because this was a frustrating game.

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Some notes from a tough Saturday in the Buckeye State:

• Swing Emerita Mashaire had been doing nice off-ball work in Buffalo’s three-game winning streak, but—given the team’s thin bench, Mashaire’s heavy, season-long workload and, to be honest, a continued lack of progress as a scorer—Coach Burke appears to have decided it’s time to get 6’2 freshman Hattie Ogden serious minutes.

• Ogden, who played 46 minutes in seven games this month, started and played 39 minutes on Saturday. She responded by drilling five threes (five-of-11 from three) for a team-high 15 points with four rebounds and two steals. Mashaire, by contrast, played 19 minutes, her shortest outing since Dec. 1.

• Stone, Young, and Winfield combined to shoot 11-of-47 from the floor for 29 points, marking the trio’s lowest scoring output since a 53-35 loss to Drexel on Nov. 27 in which they had 18 total points. Young wasn’t even a starter at the time. We’re almost into February, and the book is out on Buffalo—if this trio can’t finish at the basket, it’s game over. Winfield shoots 39 percent from three, but has only attempted 18 treys this season. Young and Stone each shoot around 30 percent from distance.

• The lack of roster depth continues to hamstring Burke’s ability to make moves with the squad. Ogden is tall on a team lacking size, and can score from the outside on a team in need of shooters, so her promotion makes sense. Kayla Salmons, a 6’3 forward, missed the WMU game but had already seen her minutes fluctuate this month from 11 versus CMU to 30 against the big Bowling Green frontcourt. Salmons logged 16 minutes against Akron, had three rebounds, and did not score.

• There’s almost no guard depth behind the Big Three of Stone, Young, and Winfield—skilled reserve Latrice Perkins, who can play the two or the three, missed the Bowling Green game, and saw only six minutes on Saturday.

• Caelen Ellis played two minutes, but the freshman guard from Georgia is still a work in progress. Briyanna Baron, a midseason walk-on as a senior, was a high school star in Brooklyn but remains a mystery. As a result, the Big Three play monster minutes (118 of 120 on Saturday), and accept the wear and tear that comes with that workload.

• To rub salt in the wound, former UB point guard Dominique Camp (pictured above) had 15 points, four assists, and three rebounds for Akron in the win.

From GoZips.com:

Sophomore F Reagan Bass (Strongsville, Ohio) led all scorers with 20 points and nine rebounds, while senior G Dominique Camp (Dayton, Ohio) helped power the charge against her former team, adding 15 points and three steals. Senior F Molly Neitzel (Rocky River, Ohio) contributed 14 points, nine rebounds and three assists in a strong all-around effort. Redshirt junior G Layne Ferrell (Franklin, Ohio) added a game-high six assists to go along with an eight-point performance, while senior G Rachel Martindale (Pittsburgh, Pa.) posted nine points, including a trio of three pointers, and dished out five assists.

The good news: Buffalo’s Wednesday opponent—Miami—is ranked 252nd in NCAA NET. The RedHawks are 8-13 overall, 3-5 in the MAC, and those five conference losses came by an average of 14.6 points. Not to imply this will be an easy win (nothing’s easy in league play, especially on the road) but will certainly be winnable. The Bulls could use a win right now. Game time is 7 p.m. from Oxford, Ohio (ESPN+).

NOTES FROM THE FIELD: St. Bonaventure Pulls Off the Upset in Richmond, Taking Out Virginia Commonwealth

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The St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team flipped its entire roster this past offseason. The transfer portal giveth, it taketh away, and it giveth again—Head Coach Mark Schmidt was somehow able to patch together a team that’s 11-11 overall and currently 5-4 in the hotly competitive A10.

This morning, Schmidt and Bonnies Nation are undoubtedly still warm in the glow of a major conference upset on Saturday night in Richmond. Eleven and a half-point underdogs, St. Bona came into Virginia Commonwealth University’s rollicking Siegel Center and handed the Rams their first loss since Jan. 4, snapping a six-game win streak.

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Was VCU sleeping on the Bonnies, considering all of the new faces? No, Rams head coach Mike Rhoades said after the game—actually, it was exactly what he expected.

“Not with Schmidty,” Rhoades said. “He’s a great coach, and he motivates those guys. They run great stuff. From recruiting, you know a lot of these guys anyways, and there’s plenty of film, we’ve all played so many games—they may not run all of their plays like they did in the past, but a lot of them are similar. A lot of them are counters, and we prepared for that. But you got to do it and execute on the court. We just didn’t do it enough. We were giving them open shots, and angles in the post, and we gave up a couple easy baskets around the rim—we didn’t jump to the ball, or get to a cross screen or a back screen—that’s the scouting report, that’s the carryover we have. The emphasis on the game just wasn’t in the front of our mind enough today to win the game. It’s disappointing, but that’s why it’s a long season.”

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The game was very physical and heavy on defense, particularly in the early going—not a huge surprise, as VCU is 36th in the country in scoring defense and St. Bonaventure is 117th. At the 9:50 mark of the first half, Bonnies big man Chad Venning connected on a layup to cut the Rams’ lead to four, at…12-8.

St. Bona shot just 25 percent from the floor in the first half, and only went to the line twice (making one). Schmidt’s team did, however, hold on tight to VCU, dragging them into the same kind of game. The Rams only shot 38 percent themselves, and managed only one field goal over the final 5:31 of the period. Bonnies went into halftime down a reasonable 23-18.

“We played hard, we just didn’t play the right way enough,” Rhoades said. “Credit to them…we just didn’t do enough to win the game today. When it’s a close game, everything counts, and we missed too many open ones.”

Brandon Johns, Jr., a 6’8, 240-pound VCU guard, opened the second half with four quick point to give the home team a nine-point lead, but the Bonnies went on a 14-4 run over the next four minutes to take a 32-31 lead and shocking the sold out crowd into something resembling silence. Junior guard Moses Flowers hit two threes in that stretch, and point guard Kyrell Luc finished a pair of tough layups off the drive.

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The lead teetered back and forth, with SBU going up by four at 11:44 on a Barry Evans dunk, and the Rams seizing control two minutes later with a quick 6-0 run. At 6:54, VCU forward Jalen DeLoach—who finished with a double-double (12 points, 12 boards)—put back his own miss to give Commonwealth a six-point, 49-43 lead, the momentum, and, it seemed, heading into a timeout, the path to victory.

Not so fast—the Bonnies went on another run out of stoppage, taking a 54-53 lead by outscoring the Rams 11-4 over a 3:30 stretch. Now, with time slipping away, St. Bona was able to grow that advantage to four points on a clutch Venning basket with under a minute left in the game, and four Flowers free throws. A missed Ace Baldwin three at the buzzer sealed the deal at 61-58 in favor of the guests.

Setting Up a Big Flip Into February

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“We’ve got to bring our hunger back,” DeLoach said. “We let players who don’t normally score hit shots.”

“At the end of the day, we still had an opportunity to win the game,” added VCU guard Zeb Jackson. “Our help defense on the big man (Venning) could’ve been a little bit better at the end. (Bonnies forward Yann Farell) had a lot of threes, keeping him away from the line—we could’ve been better at stuff like that. But it’s not the end of the world. Next game, I know we’ll be ready.”

Farell (five-for-seven on three-point attempts) and Flowers each finished with 15 points for the Bonnies in the win. Farell also had a team-high seven rebounds. Venning scored 13 points, and Luc delivered four points, four rebounds, and four assists.

Starting Tuesday, the second-place Rams have a big week ahead—a visit to Davidson (10-11, 3-6), where the team has struggled to win in years past, and then massive games at A10-leading Saint Louis (15-6, 7-1) and third-place Dayton (14-8, 6-3). These are each major tests.

St. Bonaventure, meanwhile, climbed into sixth place in the A10 with the victory, and now take on Richmond (11-11, 4-5) at the Robins Center in Virginia’s capital on Wednesday and then face Dayton back in Olean on Saturday. The Bonnies are also in good position to start climbing with a pair of wins.

Still another full month to go.

1. Payton was formerly Bulls guard Curtis Jones’ teammate at Indian Hills Community College in Ottumwa, Iowa.

2. Which, I should note, I’m fine with. The refs were consistent on Friday, which is essentially all you can ask for, especially with some of the jokers in the MAC.

3. Obviously Buffalo had its own problem with CMU, but these guys have the occasional trick in their bag. There’s the win over Michigan, and then last night’s last-second takedown of Western Michigan on Toilet Paper Night (seriously) at McGuirk Arena. Former Chips legend Dan Majerle was in the house for the thrilling conclusion. Worth watching.

4. If this was written by Sarah Tranelli—if you’re reading this, hi, Sarah!—it would not be the first time she’s been vocal in her criticism of the team’s performance (although, to be clear, not Coach Burke). As a semi-regular Bulls radio listener—life doesn’t always stop for hoops, people—I’ve heard Sarah go in on this team in the past. It’s refreshing!