Luke Skaljac scored a career-high 19 points as No. 23 Miami (Ohio) remained unbeaten with a 73-71 victory over host Buffalo on Tuesday night in a Mid-American Conference contest.
Buffalo closed to 73-71 on a Noah Batchelor 3-pointer with 12 seconds to play and had a chance to win the game, but Ryan Sabol’s 3-pointer with 4 seconds left hit the front rim and bounced out.
Skaljac also had five steals, four rebounds and three assists. Miami (23-0, 11-0 MAC) received an 11-point performance from Brant Byers and 10 points, five rebounds and eight assists from Peter Suder.
Arizona (22-0) is the only other unbeaten Division I team in the country.
Buffalo’s Angelo Brizzi made nine of 14 field-goal attempts and scored a game-high 22 points. Daniel Freitag added 18 points, seven assists and four rebounds for the Bulls (14-9, 4-7).
Suder’s layup capped a 10-0 spurt that handed Miami a 48-37 lead with 17:56 to play. The RedHawks had their largest lead, 52-40, after Skaljac’s jumper with 16:01 left, but Buffalo scored the next nine points to pull within three. It was 62-62 after Brizzi’s 3-pointer with 6:39 remaining.
The teams tied twice more before the RedHawks opened a 72-66 advantage on Skaljac’s layup with 3:02 left and 18-foot jumper with 1:35 remaining.
Brizzi responded with a dunk with 1:20 to go before Justin Kirby made one of two free throws with 32 seconds left for Miami’s 73-68 lead.
The Bulls had a significant edge in the game at the free-throw line, where they made 14 of 18 attempts. The RedHawks didn’t attempt a free throw until 9:25 remained in the game. Miami was 3 of 6 at the foul line.
Neither team led by more than seven points in the first half. Buffalo had a 33-32 lead following a Batchelor 3-pointer with 4:07 left in the half before Miami gained a 38-35 by halftime.
The RedHawks shot 56.7% (17 of 30) from the field in the first half, while the Bulls shot 38.7% (12 of 31).
Miami earned a 105-102 overtime victory in the first meeting between the teams this season on Jan. 17 in Oxford, Ohio.
–Field Level Media
