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Bowling Green State University Athletics
Men's Basketball Travels to Buffalo
February 11, 2007 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 11, 2007
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Bowling Green (11-13, 2-9) at Buffalo (10-14, 2-9) Tuesday, February 13, 7 p.m. Alumni Arena (6,100) Series Record: BGSU leads 11-3 Radio: BGSU Radio Network (Todd Walker) Up Next: BGSU at Morehead State, February 17, 5:15 p.m.
FALCONS BEGIN STRETCH RUN OF CONFERENCE SEASON
Bowling Green and Buffalo will meet for the 15th time in a series which began in during the 1998-99 season. This will be a rematch of the conference opener which saw BGSU win a 74-73 contest on a late three-pointer by senior Martin Samarco on January 7. BGSU is coming off a 65-63 home loss to Eastern Michigan, while Buffalo fell 59-56 at home to Central Michigan. The Falcons are beginning a second stretch of five games against fellow East Division members.
LAST TIME AGAINST THE BULLS
Senior Martin Samarco scored a career-high 43 points, including a deep three-pointer from the left corner with 2.8 seconds left as BGSU defeated Buffalo, 74-73, in the MAC opener for both teams. That capped an 11-point rally and two lead changes in the final 4:48 as BGSU trailed 70-59.
It was the second time this season that Samarco hit a game-winner from that corner at Anderson Arena. Hit a two-pointer as time expired earlier this season against Troy.
What ensued next was chaos. UB quickly threw the ball down court but the ball went over the head of the open Bull and BGSU retained possession underneath its own basket with 2.8 seconds left following a lengthy debate by the officials who considered giving the Falcons the ball underneath Buffalo's basket.
Sophomore Nate Miller was fouled before BGSU could get the ball in, but he missed two free throws and UB called timeout with 2.3 seconds left when it got the rebound. On the inbounds play, the ball hit Miller in the leg at midcourt and he swatted the ball away from on oncoming Buffalo player and time expired.
After blowing the 11-point lead, Buffalo regained the advantage at 73-71 when sophomore Erik Moore hit his 11th three-pointer of the game with 38 seconds to go. He finished with 35 points and made 11 of 16 three-point field goals, the most ever by an individual in Anderson Arena history.
BGSU had taken back the lead at 71-70 on a layup by freshman Ryan Sims with 1:33 to go. The Falcons began the comeback when Samarco scored a layup and was fouled to make it 70-62. Samarco would drain a triple to cut it to 70-65 and 12 seconds later Miller stole the ball from Buffalo's Yassin Idbihi and took it all the way for a score and it was 70-67 with 3:00 left.
Samarco would miss a potential game-tying shot, but came down the floor and forced a steal hitting Miller for a layup attempt. After Miller left the game with cramps, sophomore Dusan Radivojevic hit a pair of free throws to cut the lead to 70-69. The Bulls would miss again and Sims would garner the board and later score.
The Falcons had built a 16-point advantage in the first half and led 34-18 with 6:17 to go after sophomore Brian Guerin and Samarco drilled back-to back three-pointers. Buffalo would close out the half on a 17-2 run and BGSU's lead at halftime was 36-35.
The Bulls quickly picked up where they left off and led 52-43 with 15:36 remaining and 66-55 with 8:30 to go. After BGSU cut the lead to 66-59 on a three-pointer with 5:16 left, UB would score four straight points, before the momentum quickly shifted to the Orange and Brown.
One of the key plays in the Falcons winning stretch was a blocked shot and two defensive rebounds by freshman Otis Polk. Also, Guerin would have a career-day with 10 points and 10 assists, both career-high's.
BRACKETBUSTER
BGSU will travel to Morehead State on Saturday, February 17 in a pool game for the O'Reilly Auto Parts/ESPNU BracketBusters. MSU will visit BGSU next season as part of the arrangement. All 12 MAC teams will play non-conference affairs that day. Morehead State is 10-11 and is a member of the Ohio Valley Conference. This will be the sixth meeting between the two teams and first since 1985 (MSU leads 3-2). BGSU is 5-3 overall in BracketBuster related play having played Illinois-Chicago, Youngstown State, Arkansas-Little Rock and Wright State in the event.
