The University of Buffalo moved out to a 10-point halftime lead and went on to defeat the University of Maine men’s basketball team 79-60 in a non-conference matchup at Buffalo, New York, on Friday night.
The win ended a two-game losing streak for the Bulls, now 6-7, and marked the team’s first victory in five games against UMaine. The Black Bears and Buffalo were meeting for the first time since 1993.
UMaine suffered its fourth straight loss and fell to 4-10 entering its final non-conference game of the season against Columbia at 2 p.m. Monday at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor.
Buffalo held a 37-27 advantage at intermission and maintained its cushion thanks to a solid shooting effort — the Bulls made 27 of their 55 field-goal attempts, or 49.1 percent, for the game.
That was in stark contrast to UMaine, which shot just 33 percent (23 of 69) from the field, including 9 of 31 from beyond the 3-point arc and 5 of 14 from the free-throw line.
Junior guard Austin Howard paced UMaine with 18 points, four rebounds and four assists while freshman forward Andrew Fleming of South Paris, the reigning America East Rookie of the Week, added his third double-double of the season with 14 points on 7-of-14 shooting to go with 12 rebounds.
Danny Evans contributed eight points and four rebounds for coach Bob Walsh’s Black Bears, while Vincent Eze grabbed nine rebounds.
Blake Hamilton paced Buffalo, a Mid-American Conference team that played in the NCAA tournament last winter, with 15 points, nine rebounds and three assists. Teammate C.J. Massinburg came off the bench to add 15 points while Nick Perkins scored 11 points and Willie Conner scored 10.
