Bowling Green 35 40 — 75
Buffalo 35 42 — 77

By Nick Veronica

What it means: UB earned the No. 2 seed in the MAC Tournament with its win and the results of Friday’s other MAC games. Players and coaches cut down the nets after the game as the PA announced the Bulls as MAC co-champions, along with Central Michigan and Kent State at 12-6.

The MAC highly rewards its top seeds, giving seeds 3 and 4 byes into the quarterfinals of the conference tournament and seeds 1 and 2 byes into the semifinals. UB’s first tournament game will be Friday, March 13 against a team to be determined. Two years at UB, two MAC East titles for Bobby Hurley.

Play-by-play: The final minute and a half was wild. Here’s how it went down:

Justin Moss puts UB ahead 71-70 with 1:32 left. Bowling Green’s Spencer Parker tied it by making one of two free throws with 1:12 to go, then a BG steal led to a David Joseph layup that regained the lead. Will Regan knocked down his fifth three-pointer to put UB back in front, then Jospeh’s layup made it 75-74 Bowling Green with 26.3 remaining.

Lamonte Bearden answered with a jumper to put UB up 76-75 with 14.9 seconds left. Anthony Henderson missed the front end of a one-and-one with 7.4 left and UB got the rebound. Justin Moss hit one of two free throws to put UB up 77-75. Moss then recovered a loose ball as BG came up the court.

Moss

Moss appeared to call for a timeout, which would’ve been disastrous because UB didn’t have any timeouts left. Refs instead called a jump ball as Moss failed to secure the ball. Possession went to BG with 1.3 seconds left. The Falcons had the ball by their bench and threw up an alley-oop for the tie, but the pass went out of bounds. UB celebrated as the horn sounded, but no one had touched the ball so the clock shouldn’t have started. UB inbounded the ball deep into BG territory and ran out the clock on a 77-75 win.

UB looked to be in some trouble late in the first half down 34-20 with 4:16 left before halftime, but an incredible hot streak brought the game to a 35-35 tie at the break. Will Regan started the run with a three-pointer, then Shannon Evans hit one, Regan hit another, and then Evans hit two deep triples that earned a standing ovation as UB went into the locker room.

UB’s season-best winning streak is now at six games. Moss finished with 19 points while playing only 21 minutes in foul trouble. Regan had 17 and Shannon Evans had 14. Jehvon Clarke led Bowling Green with 21.

MAC Tournament bracket: UB has a bye all the way into the semifinals. The 2-seed is on the bottom in Game 10.

Operation 6000:

Free-throw struggles: UB wouldn’t have been in such a deep hole in the first half if it could’ve made some free throws. The Bulls hit just 5 of 13 free throws in the first half (38.5%) and shot 57 percent for the game.

No T: Hurley was very upset with the refs when a BG’s Delvin Dickerson intentionally bumped Shannon Evans while checking out with 10:48 left in the game. The officials went to replay but decided not to call a technical foul.

MAC Player of the Year?

Senior Day: UB seniors Will Regan and Xavier Ford were honored prior to tipoff.

Vegas line: Line was UB -6.5 and over/under 138. Bowling Green covered, total was 152.

Next: UB’s next game will be in Cleveland Friday during the MAC Tournament, opponent TBD.