Staff Reports
The University at Buffalo men’s basketball team’s season ended Thursday night with a 73-59 loss to Miami in the quarterfinal round of the Mid-American Conference tournament in Cleveland.
After trailing by 18 points early in the first half, the fifth-seeded Bulls (18-12) battled back to get within a bucket late in the second half, but couldn’t complete the comeback against No. 4 seed Miami.
Sean Smiley hit four 3-pointers in a four-minute span to cut Miami’s lead to 56-54 with less than six minutes to play.
That’s the closest UB would get. Miami pushed its lead up to seven points before Calvin Betts converted a 3-point play to make it 61-57 with 2:38 left.
After another RedHawks basket, the Bulls committed just their second turnover of the second half when Smiley’s cross-court pass was stolen by Kenny Hayes, whose two free throws at the 1:52 mark boosted Miami’s lead to 65-57.
After UB opened the game with a John Boyer 3-pointer, Miami went on a 17-0 run and the Bulls had to play catch up for the rest of the night. The RedHawks lead 32-21 at halftime.
Hayes scored 27 points to lead Miami (14-17), which will meet No. 9 seed Ohio in the semifinals. The Bobcats upset top-seeded Kent State on Saturday.
Smiley led the Bulls with 13 points, while Rodney Pierce scored 12. Betts had seven points and 11 rebounds.
