Saturday's Men’s Basketball Results
Ball State 79, Northern Illinois 43
Bowling Green 81, UMass 62
Central Michigan 75, Buffalo 70
Toledo 79, Ohio 67

Recaps courtesy of MAC Athletic Communications Departments

Ball State 79, Northern Illinois 43
Box Score
Recap coming soon…

Bowling Green 81, UMass 62
Box Score

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University men's basketball team clinched their spot in the MAC Tournament with an 81-62 victory over the UMass Minutemen on Saturday (Feb. 28) at the Stroh Center. The Falcons fell behind in the first half by as many as 14, but battled back, including an 18-point swing in the second half. During the second half, BGSU registered a 20-2 run that spanned nearly five minutes of action to reach the final tally. With the win, Bowling Green secured their spot in Cleveland for the conference tournament while advancing to 17-13 on the year and 8-9 within the MAC. BGSU will wrap up the regular season at Eastern Michigan on March 6 with the MAC Tournament beginning on March 12. 

The Falcons won the opening tip and started the scoring with a three from Javon Ruffin. Troy Glover II added a dunk, but UMass answered each time to take a 7-5 lead into the first media timeout.

UMass stretched their lead with a three, but a Josiah Shackelford triple answered before an Aiden Goins layup tied it up at 10-10. The Minutemen answered again, but a Javontae Campbell and-one tied it up, 12-12, at the under-12 media timeout. After the break, Campbell made the free three for a 13-12 advantage. 

Sam Towns added two more at the line, but a 5-0 run for UMass followed to push them back in front, 17-15, at the under-8 media timeout. The run for UMass reached 17-0 for a 29-15 score. 

Glover ended the run with two free throws with Campbell later adding a second-chance layup for a 29-19 score at the final media timeout of the first half. Mahki Leach added two at the line for the Falcons before a 6-0 run by Ruffin, consisting of a three and an and-one, bringing the score to 37-28 at the halftime whistle. 

The Falcons opened the second half with baskets from Goins and Campbell to cut into the lead, 39-32, at the first media timeout. 

From there, the Falcons worked to knot it up at 41-41. A three from Justin Thomas started the burst followed by a fastbreak layup from Thomas for a UMass timeout. Shackelford added a layup and two at the line for the tie. The tie moved to 44-44 with a Campbell free throw and layup, but another Campbell layup made it a 46-44 BGSU lead at the under-12 media timeout.

UMass tallied four points to move in front, but a Campbell layup tied it before an and-one from Troy Glover II for a 51-48 BGSU advantage. UMass pushed ahead, 52-51, but a three-point barrage followed for Bowling Green. Thomas hit two, split by a Shackelford triple for a 60-52 lead to force a timeout from the UMass bench, doubling as the under-8 media. 

The run continued with an and-one for Thomas in transition before a tip-in from Campbell. The three-point barrage returned with two from Shackelford, making it a 20-2 BGSU stretch, leading to a 71-56 BGSU lead at the final media timeout in regulation.

A second-chance bucket from Glover and a layup from Campbell extended the BGSU advantage before the next UMass basket. Campbell tallied the next three Bowling Green points before Leach finished it off with two at the line for the 81-62 final score. 

The Falcons will conclude the regular season next Friday (March 6) on the road at Eastern Michigan with a 6:30 p.m. tip in Ypsilanti before transitioning to the MAC Tournament, beginning on March 12. 

Central Michigan 75, Buffalo 70
Box Score

BUFFALO, N.Y.—Tamario Adley scored a game-high 21 points and Central Michigan held off host Buffalo down the stretch to register its first road win of the 2025-26 season, a 75-70 victory Saturday afternoon at Alumni Arena.

The win moves Central Michigan (10-19 overall, 6-10 MAC) into a seventh-place tie with Buffalo (16-13, 6-10 MAC) and a half-game ahead of ninth-place Massachusetts (6-11 MAC). The Chippewas now hold the tiebreaker against Buffalo. The top 8 teams advance to the MAC Tournament, March 12-14, in Cleveland.

Next up for Central Michigan, the Chippewas host Akron at McGuirk Arena for its final home game on Tuesday, March 3, and then closes the regular season at Ball State on Friday, March 6 (7 p.m.).

With the win, Central Michigan's snapped a seven-game losing streak in games played at Buffalo and gave the Chippewas their first win on the road against Bulls since Feb. 14, 2015 (75-74). It was Central Michigan's first road win since a 69-67 victory at Ball State on March 4, 2015.

Adley converted seven of his 13 field goal attempts, 3-6 3-point attempts and hit all four of his free throw attempts in the game's final 20 seconds when Buffalo cut CMU's lead down to three points (73-70) with 14 seconds to play. He iced the game with two free throws with 13 seconds to play. It marked Adley's sixth 20-point game of the season. Phat Phat Brooks finished with his third straight game in double-figure scoring with 14 points (5-8 FG) with a career-high seven rebounds, and eight assists. Nathan Claerbaut added 11 points, four rebounds and four blocked shots, and Keenan Garner led the Chippewas with 10 rebounds, his four double-digit rebound game of the season.

Central Michigan made all the winning plays. The Chippewas dominated the boards, outrebounded the Buffalo 39-23 and grabbed 14 offensive rebounds to UB's 17 defensive, and hit a season-high 82.4 percent (14-17) of their free throws. The Chippewas led by six points at halftime, led by as many as 16 points early in the second half, then held off a late Buffalo rally for the victory.

Central Michigan used a 9-0 run to expand a six-point halftime lead to a game-high 16 points (47-31) at the 14:58 mark. While holding the Bulls scoreless over a three-minute span, Claerbaut started the run with a jumper, then scored on a layup, Jalen Kampen hit a 3-pointer, then Nick Mullen stole a pass and drove in for a layup.

But Buffalo wasn't finished. The Bulls gradually cut the margin down. They cut the lead down to six points on a 3-pointer Ryan Sabol and two Angelo Brizzi free throws with 5:16 to play. Another Sabol 3-pointer cut the lead to 71-68 with 31 seconds to go and a Brizzi layup cut the deficit to three points (73-70) but that was as close at the Bulls came as the Chippewas had an answer every time Buffalo made a run.

Central Michigan built a six-point halftime lead (34-26) as it shot 62.5 percent from 3-point range and outrebounded the Bulls 22-9.

Central Michigan used an 11-2 run to take an 18-16 lead with 8:28 to play in the first half. Adley hit a 3-pointer to give Central Michigan its first lead of the game, Brooks converted a 3-point play, Jalen Kampen hit a 3-pointer and Claerbaut started the run with a layup off a McIntire pass.

Later, a 6-0 run gave the Chippewas CMU went up 31-24 on a Claerbaut layup, Kampen jumper, and two Garner free throws. Adley hit a 3-pointer with 46 seconds left to play and the Chippewas ended the first half on a 9-2 run.

The Chippewas will host second-place Akron (24-5, overall, 15-1 MAC) on Tuesday night at McGuirk Arena for the regular season finale. Tipoff is at 7 p.m.

Toledo 79, Ohio 67
Box Score
Recap coming soon…