Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
BUFFALO
Bulls Edge Falcons, 76-73
January 24, 2006 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 24, 2006
Final Stats | Quotes | Notes
Bowling Green, Ohio (AP) - Despite a 30-point effort from junior Martin Samarco and a career-scoring night from senior Mawel Soler, the BGSU men's basketball team fell to Buffalo, 76-73, in Anderson Arena. BGSU is 7-10 and 3-4 in the MAC, while Buffalo is 14-4 and 4-3 in the MAC.
BGSU led 13-11 with 9:54 to go in the first half, but the Bulls, led by senior Calvin Cage built an 18-13 lead with 8:00 left in the first half. After a bucket by BG's Matt Lefeld tied the score at 20-20 with 6:40 left until intermission, the Bulls outscored the Falcons, 18-4 to close out the half.
Buffalo, who won for the first time in Anderson Arena (6 trips), shot 15 of 23 for 65.2 in the first half.
The Bulls extended their lead to 41-24 with 18:50 to go, but the home team would not go away. Trailing 53-38 with 15:03 left in the game, BGSU went on a 13-0 run. The Falcons got six consecutive points from junior John Floyd in 23 second span and trailed by two, 53-51 with 13:11 remaining.
The Bulls went on an 8-0 run to lead 61-51 with 10:16 left. BGSU cut the advantage to 62-57 with 7:19 to go but could not convert on three straight possessions.
The Bulls appeared to have iced the game on a three-pointer with 2:47 by Roderick Middleton that made the score 68-59.
Trailing 70-63 with 1:25 to go, the Falcons nearly came back in one trip down the floor. Buffalo's Mario Jordan was whistled for an intentional foul on Soler and then fouled out when he also was called for a technical.
Samarco, the MAC's top free throw shooter, nailed two and Soler, who finished with 19 points and made eight of nine shots from the floor also canned a pair of charity tosses to make it 70-67.
On the inbounds play, Soler got the ball inside and was stripped by UB's Parnell Smith. The Bulls would hit three of four free throws to extend the advantage to six points.
BG made it 73-70 when Soler canned a three-pointer with 30 seconds to go, but the Falcon bench was called for a technical for being out on the court too far and the Bulls made just one of two free throws with 18 seconds left.
After a BGSU rebound, Samarco hit his sixth three-pointer with 10 seconds to go to make it 74-73. Cage then sank two free throws and Samarco's long three-pointer at the buzzer hit the back of the rim.
