The Bulls’ 6-foot-7 junior forward from France showed in just one half against Miami on Thursday that he can do more than just play defense, Mballa, a second-team All-MAC pick, fell two rebounds short of logging a double-double by halftime, scoring 16 points and grabbing eight rebounds.
“He’s a good player,” fourth-year Miami coach Jack Owens said. “He’s an all-conference kind of guy. He’s a guy who plays to his strength. He’s not a good 3-point shooter, but he plays the angles.”
Jeenathan Williams and Ronaldo Segu both went 5-for-6 on 3-pointers while Buffalo was sinking 12-of-20 shots from beyond the arc. Williams went 4-for-4 on 3-pointers in the first half and finished with 20 points and while Segu added 16.
“They haven’t shot the 3 well all year,” Owens said. “Give Jeenathan Williams credit.”
Senior forward Dalonte Brown scored 17 points and sophomore guard Dae Dae Grant added 12 for Miami. The seventh-seeded RedHawks put together a 9-0 run on the way to cutting a 13-point Buffalo lead to one within the last five minutes of the game, but Grant committed a turnover on Miami’s first possession coming out of a timeout that Williams converted with a 3-pointer and the Bulls pulled away for the win.
“Buffalo’s got a pretty good team.” said Grant, named third-team All-MAC on Wednesday. “Give them kudos. Give them props. We have to just be more aggressive.
“It was a challenge. It was exciting. It was very interesting to see how the game comes out. It’s on me. Coming out of the timeout, Coach drew up a play and I turned the ball over. I’ve got to be better at taking care of the ball.”
“It was a hard-fought game,” Owens said. “Obviously, in the second half, we cut it to one, Unfortunately, after the timeout, we had the turnover. Give Buffalo credit. We’ve got to do a better job of getting quality shots. If you want to play winning basketball, you’ve got to take cae of the basketball, and we’ve done that all year.”
Miami went 9-8 in the MAC regular season and won four of its last five games to earn the tournament seventh seed. The RedHawks finish 12-11 overall.
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