Bulls get back to business of winning
Win over Florida Int’l softens sting of UConn
It wasn’t about trying to win pretty.
It was only about trying to win by managing emotions and keeping focus. Easier said than done for the University at Buffalo men’s basketball team after a heartbreaking loss to No. 2 Connecticut on Thursday.
Two days later though, the Bulls came back and took care of business enough to pull away for a 70-56 win over Florida International in front of 1,335 at Alumni Arena on Saturday afternoon.
“We felt like somebody had to pay. We felt we should have won the UConn game and we didn’t want to have any letdown for this game or for any other game the rest of the season,” said Greg Gamble, who led the Bulls with 12 points after going 0 for 10 against the Huskies. “We set the standard high for ourselves and we want to maintain it and show that we can play at that level.”
But to play at that level, most of the Bulls had to work through the emotions of that UConn game.
“This was a really tough game emotionally for our guys,” UB coach Reggie Witherspoon said. “For some of them, Thursday night was really tough and I know a lot of them didn’t get to sleep until four of five in the morning. . . . We were trying to pull the energy out of our guys and just were trying to get them locked in.”
What helped the Bulls (4-3) deal with the emotional fatigue of Thursday’s near-miss was a deep bench, which contributed 40 points and 18 rebounds Saturday.
Sean Smiley added to that bench total, hitting eight straight points for the Bulls during a two-minute span late in the second half, including a threepointer which gave UB a double-digit lead for good.
Smiley finished with 11 points.
“Just like always, we’re trying to move on offense and keep the bodies fresh in there,” Smiley said. “We can go deep in the bench defensively and offensively and the way we do both, we have to have fresh bodies because we move a lot. We were getting the looks we saw on film. When we’re moving well, the open shots just come.”
But most important to this UB team is its defense. The Bulls take pride in their ability to defend and they held Florida International (4-5) to just 34 percent from the field (18 of 53).
And when defense is your calling card, a deep bench is vital.
“I knew we couldn’t have one guy out there for a whole lot of minutes,” Witherspoon said. “It’s good to be able to play people, like Sean Smiley, who have gotten the minutes, and quality minutes not charity minutes. They know what they’re doing out there and how to handle situations and that really helped us.”
“It’s definitely important,” Gamble said. “I think it’s great that everybody is fresh in and out of the game. You may play 20 minutes but you can play a hard 20 minutes instead of an OK 30 or 35 minutes. And for our bench to score 40 points, they can do that on a regular basis.”
Florida International took a 13-10 lead at 12:49 of the first half — its last advantage of the game. The Bulls led by as many as 12 (32-20) but the Golden Panthers made a run to cut the margin in half.
A three-pointer by Smiley pushed the Bulls advantage to 35-26 at halftime.
In the second half, Florida International again got within six, 50-44, with 8:56 to play, but Smiley went on his streak to extend the lead back into double figures and secure the win.
Gamble finished the game with seven rebounds and four assists while Calvin Betts and Rodney Pierce each added eight points.
Michael Dominguez and Tremayne Russell each had 13 points for the Golden Panthers.
The Bulls are off until Dec. 20 when they host UNC Ashville at 4 p. m. in Alumni Arena.
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