Harris Tallies Career Night as Buffalo Tops Toledo
Tuesday's Scoreboard
#19 Buffalo 110, Toledo 80
Eastern Michigan 84, Ball State 82 (2OT)
Bowling Green 82, Ohio 63
Kent State 88, Western Michigan 73
Northern Illinois 83, Miami 70
Central Michigan 88, Akron 86 (OT)
Stories Courtesy of The Associated Press
#19 Buffalo 110,
Toledo 80
Box Score
AMHERST, N.Y. -- Jeremy Harris scored a career-best 34 points in leading No. 19 Buffalo to a 110-80 rout of Toledo on Tuesday night.
Harris scored 20 points in the first half alone and finished hitting a career-best six 3-point baskets for the Bulls (14-1, 2-0 Mid-American Conference). Buffalo celebrated its first home game in 3 1/2 weeks by putting up 110 points for the second time this season. The Bulls last scored that many in a 110-71 win over Dartmouth on Nov. 21.
Nick Perkins scored 21 and Jayvon Graves had 13 points and 12 rebounds for Buffalo, which won its 18th consecutive home game in a streak dating to a 103-85 loss to St. Bonaventure on Dec. 2, 2017.
Marreon Jackson scored 20 and Chris Darrington added 21 for Toledo (12-3, 0-2). The Rockets' leading scorer Jaelan Sanford hit just 1 of 10 for 3 points.
The game hardly lived up to the anticipation in being a rematch of last year's MAC championship, which Buffalo won 76-66 to clinch its third conference title in four years.
The Rockets hit just nine of their first 23 attempts, including going 2 of 8 from 3-point range through the first 16 minutes.
Toledo was coming off a MAC-opening 79-64 loss to Ball State on Friday, and has now lost two straight for the first time since Feb. 17-20 of last season. The Blades have also not had a lead in each of their past two games.
The game was essentially over in the first half when Buffalo opened the game scoring 18 of the first 22 points capped by Perkins' dunk on the transition 5:07 in.
Harris went 7 of 12 from the field, including hitting five of eight 3-point attempts in the first half alone. And his transition layup after Luke Knapke missed the first half of a one-and-one free-throw attempt allowed Buffalo to build its biggest lead -- a 44-24 edge with 2:22 left in the first half.
After trailing by as many as 20 in the first half, the Rockets mustered a brief comeback bid by cutting Buffalo's lead to 64-51 on Nate Navigato's eight-foot jumper from the paint with 14:32 left.
The Bulls responded by going on a 13-0 run over a 3:11 span and capped by Davonta Jordan scoring on a transition layup.
Buffalo then broke the game open by building a 93-63 lead with 7:37 left, when Graves punctuated a transition break with a dunk that got the crowd on its feet.
Eastern Michigan 84,
Ball State 82 (2OT)
Box Score
MUNCIE, Ind. -- Elijah Minnie scored 25 points with a career-high six 3-pointers, Paul Jackson added 15 points and the winning free throws, and Eastern Michigan beat Ball State 84-82 in the second overtime on Tuesday night for its first win against the Cardinals since March 3, 2015.
James Thompson IV scored 18 points and grabbed 19 rebounds -- 11 on the offensive end -- for his fourth straight double-double for the Eagles (7-8, 1-1 Mid-American), who ended a two-game skid. Kevin McAdoo added 15 points.
Trey Moses' layup tied it at 82 with 41 seconds left in the second overtime, but he missed the and-one and Jackson hit two free throws for the Eagles with 17 seconds to go. Moses missed a 3 at the buzzer and Thompson grabbed the rebound to ice it.
The Eagles led 34-32 at halftime and Minnie's 3 with six seconds left in regulation tied it at 65. Ball State's Austin Nehls hit a 3 at the first overtime buzzer to tie it at 73.
Tahjai Teague scored a career-high 28 points and grabbed 14 rebounds and Kyle Mallers added 11 points for the Cardinals (10-5, 1-1). Moses grabbed 10 rebounds and scored 16 points for his 1,000th career point to become the 32nd player in Ball State history to reach that mark.
Bowling Green 82, Ohio 63
Box Score
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -- Justin Turner scored 14 of his 20 points in the second half to help Bowling Green beat Ohio 82-63 on Tuesday night for its sixth straight win.
The Falcons (10-5, 2-0 Mid-American Conference) improved to 8-0 at home and matched its best winning streak under coach Michael Huger in his fourth season.
Michael Laster added 15 points for Bowling Green. Dylan Frye and Antwon Lillard chipped in with 13 points and Jeffrey Uju scored 10.
Jason Carter made five 3-pointers, scored 22 points and had six rebounds for Ohio (8-6, 0-2). Teyvion Kirk added 17 points.
The Bobcats led 42-41 with 15 minutes left before Bowling Green pulled away with a 33-12 run for a 20-point lead with 2:50 remaining. Lillard hit two 3s and scored 10 points and Uju had eight points and capped the surge with a dunk.
Kent State 88, Western Michigan 73
Box Score
KENT, Ohio -- Jaylin Walker scored 23 points and handed out five assists and Philip Whittington added 13 points and a career-high 15 rebounds to lead Kent State to an 88-73 victory over Western Michigan on Tuesday night.
Walker, who came in averaging 22.6 points per game, hit 8 of 19 shots including three from beyond the arc for the Golden Flashes (12-3, 1-1 Mid-American Conference). Whittington snagged six of his rebounds on the offensive glass and added two steals and two blocked shots. Jalen Avery finished with 12 points. He added eight assists and seven rebounds -- both season highs. Antonio Williamshad 14 points, Mitch Peterson scored 13 and the pair combined to make 11 of 13 shots.
Jared Printy's 3-pointer gave Western Michigan a 3-0 lead, but Whittington had a layup and Kain Harris sank a 3 and the Golden Flashes never trailed again. Walker had five points in the final 35 seconds of the first half to put the Flashes up 44-31 at intermission. William Boyer-Richard sank a 3-pointer to pull the Broncos (6-9, 0-2) within 52-48 with 13:01 left to play, but Walker hit two free throws and a 3 to push the Kent State lead back to nine and Western Michigan would get no closer.
Michael Flowers hit four 3s and scored 20 to pace Western Michigan, which has lost 12 of its last 15 games against Kent State.
Northern Illinois 83, Miami 70
Box Score
OXFORD, Ohio – Four players scored in double figures as the Northern Illinois University men's basketball team shot 57.7 percent (30-of-52) to earn its second-straight road game, 83-70, over Miami (Ohio) on Tuesday night at Millett Hall.
Senior Dante Thorpe (Washington, D.C./Triton College) scored a game-high 24 points with a game-best seven rebounds and five assists. Junior Eugene German (Gary, Ind./21st Century Charter) added 23 points, senior Levi Bradley (Milwaukee, Wis./Pius XI) had 16 points and senior Lacey James (Grand Rapids, Mich./Rider) added 10 points.
With the win, NIU improved to 9-6 overall, 2-0 in Mid-American Conference play. Coupled with Saturday's win at Ohio, it was the first back-to-back road wins for the Huskies since January 10-14, 2017, when NIU won at Kent State and Bowling Green.
Central Michigan 88,
Akron 86 (OT)
Box Score
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. -- Larry Austin Jr. drove for a layup that kissed softly off the glass with 2.5 seconds left and Central Michigan battled past Akron in overtime on Tuesday night for its seventh straight win.
Jimond Ivey scored 24 points to lead Akron, including two free throws with 12.4 seconds remaining in overtime to knot the score 86-86. Ivey also grabbed 11 rebounds and made seven assists with just one turnover.
Rob Montgomery scored a career-high 23 points for Central Michigan (13-2, 3-0 Mid-American Conference). Shawn Roundtree added 20 points, and Austin finished with 13 points and 11 assists.
Daniel Utomi added 18 points, Tyler Cheese had 16 and Loren Jackson 12 for the Zips, who led for most of the game but never by more than eight. There were 14 lead changes and seven ties.
Central Michigan trailed 76-73 when David DiLeo was fouled with 5.1 seconds on the clock. DiLeo swished all three free throws to knot the score despite Akron calling a timeout between the first and second ones.
DiLeo scored 10 points with eight rebounds.
