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CLEVELAND – The University of Buffalo men's basketball team finished the championship sweep on Saturday at the Quicken Loans Arena.
The tournament's most valuable player, Jeremy Harris, scored 31 points to help the Bulls win the 87-73 win over Bowling Green in the Mid-American Conference tournament championship. The Bulls have won their fourth MAC championship and their fourth participation in the NCAA tournament since 2015. UB won the conference titles and received automatic bids in 2015, 2016 and 2018.
The Bulls improve to 31-3, a MAC record for wins in a season in men's basketball. The Bulls enter the NCAA Tournament after 12 straight wins and will learn their destination in the competition when the NCAA announces Sunday the group of 68 teams.
The UB women's team, which won its own MAC titles earlier this day, joined the men's team for the presentation of the trophy.
The Bulls won all three games in Cleveland by an average of 18 points, helped by Kent State's 36 point eruption in the quarter-finals.
Harris's 31 points were 13 in 20, and C.J. Mbadinburg and Jayvon Graves added 17. Mbadinburg also had 10 rebounds.
The third seed, Bowling Green, who conceded one of his three defeats to UB, finished season 22-12. Saturday was the first meeting between the two teams in the MAC tournament.
The Bulls took a 12-8 lead in less than five minutes, with the help of Davonta Jordan and Jayvon Graves at 3 points, and held the Falcons without a free-kick – Bowling Green opened the scoring to 0. -3 3-points, and finished 2 for 10 in the first half.
Then the Falcons were hit by a drought on the ground. Bowling Green failed for almost six minutes without success. Meanwhile, the Bulls scored 9-0 and at one point the Falcons announced a 30-second timeout with 9:04 to try to regroup, scoring 24-13.
It did not work. UB built his lead at 28-13 less than a minute after the timeout and led by 12 players. The Bulls did not allow Bowling Green to hit his first pointer to three before there was less than four minutes left in the half, but Daeqwon Plowden's shot reduced UB's lead at 36-31, being part of a 14-3 run in the final at 4:13, which reduced UB's lead to 39-38 while it remained 1:30 in the half. The Falcons also took 25 rebounds against 17 for UB in the first period, including 18 defensive rebounds against 13 for UB.
The Bulls and Falcons swapped their lead five times in 2:09 of the second period, before Jeremy Harris tied at 3:17 to tie at 50-50, but Dylan Frye scored only 3- pointer to break a goalless drought of 2:31 that gave the Falcons a 53-50 lead.
The Bulls and Falcons took the advantage six more times in two minutes midway through the middle of the second period. UB opened the scoring at 11-3 to open the score at 74-68 while it remained less than five minutes.
But Nick Perkins made a mistake, a fourth foul plus a technical foul, and Justin Turner and Demajeo Wiggins made three of four free throws to reduce UB's lead to 74-71 with 4:26 to go. The Bulls did not panic, however. Eighteen seconds later, Graves' 3-pointer brought UB's lead to seven points, sending the ball to a decisive 13-2 run that closed the game for the Bulls.
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