For the first 20 minutes, Ohio looked well on its way to a handful of historic lowlights against Buffalo.
It was a second half of inside-outside dominance from the Bobcats (4-10, 1-3 Mid-American Conference) that sank Buffalo (5-8, 1-4 MAC) while giving Ohio its first MAC victory of the season, 90-76.
I'm grateful we played this game at home because I told these guys after the game if you don't play this game at home and get down the way we did - you know
play the way we did at the end of the first half and into the first five or six minutes of the second half - you probably don't have a chance to come back like we did Ohio coach Tim O'Shea said.
I really think it was the crowd and the home-court advantage that allowed us to prevail tonight.
Ohio's 12-game winning streak against the Bulls appeared to be in jeopardy with 11:30 remaining as Buffalo held its largest advantage of the game, 62-48. Terren Harbut punctuated a 22-3 run that gave Ohio the lead late in the game, but it was forward Delvar Barrett who did much of the heavy lifting early in the Ohio run.
I told them I wanted the ball basically Barrett said. I felt like we were shooting a lot of jump shots and Jaivon (Harris) was giving me a lot of screens to get open so it made it kind of easy for me to get the ball.
The perimeter success followed in the 22-3 run as Buffalo began to double team Barrett, Harris said.
He's a great low-post presence
if he gets the ball one-on-one he's going to score on anybody
and he proved that to them
Harris said.
They started to have to go after him
and I think we're skilled enough on the perimeter to actually knock open shots down.
While many Ohio players did not play well until the second half, Harris had a renewed aggressiveness unlike any other time this season, but the green light to shoot was nothing new, he said.
I think I always had it
but I never really utilized it to the fullest potential I should've been
Harris said. I've been really comfortable with my jump shot lately and I told myself
'Any daylight
I've got to take the shot
