MEN’S BASKETBALL: Defense lets down UB again

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February 1, 2010

By Tim Schmitt The Journal-Register Mon Feb 01, 2010, 10:58 PM EST

AMHERST — Defensive shooting percentage is a sticky basketball stat. Sometimes, a team runs into an offensive juggernaut, an opponent that simply can’t miss.

In the case of the University at Buffalo men’s basketball team, however, the common denominator in the last nine halves is easy to pinpoint — teams are scoring at will on the Bulls’ porous defense.

Visiting Western Michigan was the latest Mid-American Conference team to take advantage of the phenomenon, burying nearly 60 percent of its shots in capturing a pedestrian 85-70 victory at Alumni Arena on Monday.

The Bulls came in giving up an average of more than 86 points during their last four games, an almost unthinkable stat through Reggie Witherspoon’s tenure. In the process, Buffalo has quickly tumbled from a 3-0 perch atop the East Division to a meager 4-4.

“They gave us a good old-fashioned whuppin. We have some issues we have to address,” UB coach Reggie Witherspoon said.

The visiting Broncos boasted the league’s leading scorer in David Kool, a gritty senior guard who’s just as comfortable backing in a small guard as he is draining a deep 3-pointer. Kool had scored 30 and 38 points in his last two games and has five 30-point nights on the season.

And while he finished with “only” 23 points, Kool buried four of his eight 3-pointers, all of them in the first half as Western Michigan (12-9 overall, 4-4 MAAC) ran out to a 47-34 advantage by the intermission.

“I think it was just going out and doing what we do. We just hit a lot of shots today,” Kool said. “Sometimes they fall and sometimes they don’t.”

But for some reason or another, they keep falling against the Bulls. Including the second half of an ugly 89-54 loss to Kent, opponents are shooting 56 percent against Buffalo over the last nine halves.

“We can say they were hot and that’s certainly a lie,” Witherspoon said. “But when they mix in shooting really well from three and getting inside when they want, dumping it inside and scoring, then we have some issues.”

For UB, Rodney Pierce finished with 29 points and Calvin Betts added 10 points and 10 rebounds, but the Bulls were never really in this one. UB only cut the deficit to 10 once in the second half as Pierce buried a 3-pointer, but Dave Barnett missed a quick jumper on the Bulls’ next possession and Martelle McLemore followed with a 3-pointer that sucked the life out of any comeback hopes.

McLemore had a career-high 24 points and added nine rebounds for the Broncos while Donald Lawson banged inside for 11 points.

“We’re not the Phoenix Suns. We’re not going to be able to just go and just outscore people. And unfortunately, we’re at a point where we’re going to have to go inside some people,” Witherspoon said.

Contact sports editor Tim Schmitt at 282-2311, ext. 2266.

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