Kent St. @ Buffalo preview

Last Meeting ( Jan 25, 2019 ) Buffalo 88, Kent St. 79

Buffalo put the rest of the Mid-American Conference on notice on how it expects the rest of the season to go, beginning with Friday's league game against visiting Kent State. Led by Jayvon Graves, the No. 24 Bulls put on a record-setting performance Tuesday against Ohio and expect more of the same as they go for regular season sweep of the Golden Flashes.

Graves, one of the few regular contributors for Buffalo who isn't a senior, posted career highs with seven 3-pointers and 26 points as the Bulls set school marks for 3-pointers in a game (19) as well as points scored (114), and largest margin of victory (47) against a Division I opponent. "Our next 2 1/2 weeks is a huge stretch for us," coach Nate Oats told the media after his team won its 23rd straight home game. "We're going to show people we're worthy of maybe a 6 or a 5 (seed in NCAA Tournament). At one point we were 14th in the polls as a 4 seed. If you are going to get back into those conversations, we're going to have to have multiple wins like this." The Golden Flashes were in position to pull off an upset of Buffalo in the first meeting, tied at 71 with six minutes left, but faded down the stretch and have since dropped a pair of road games, including Tuesday at Central Michigan. Jaylin Walker, who continues to lead the MAC in scoring at 21.8 points per game, had 21 points in the first meeting but is coming off a 2-of-16 shooting performance in the loss to Central Michigan.

TV: 7 p.m. ET, ESPN2

ABOUT KENT STATE (19-7, 8-5 MAC): Walker's scoring has waned a bit over the last six games as he has averaged 18.1 points compared to the 23.3 per game he put up over his first 15 contests. The senior from Inkster, Mich., who is on the cusp of his third straight 500-point season, sits at 1,680 career points and has an outside shot to finish as the top scorer in school history. Walker will soon pass Jimmy Hall (1,683) and Burrell McGhee (1,710) before setting his sights on Trevor Huffman, who put up 1,820.

ABOUT BUFFALO (23-3, 11-2): Graves has mostly taken a back seat on the offensive end to seniors CJ Massinburg, Nick Perkins, Jeremy Harris and Dontay Caruthers, but set the tone against Ohio with six 3-pointers in the final 10:18 of the first half. The sophomore from Malvern, Ohio, had shown glimpses of the scorer the Bulls will likely need him to be next season, including 19 points against St. Bonaventure on Dec. 8, but had 25 total points in the four games prior to making a career-high nine field goals against Ohio. "I told someone, 'as long as my man isn't scoring, I don't care about the scoring,." the 6-3 guard told the media. "I was struggling the last few games. I had to get comfortable playing the game."

TIP-INS

1. Massinburg had 23 points against Ohio - his sixth game with 20 or more points in the last nine contests - to eclipse 1,800 for his career.

2. Buffalo has won three consecutive games against the Golden Flashes but still face a 32-18 deficit in the series, including 11-10 at home.

3. The previous record for 3-pointers in a game for the Bulls was 18 in a loss to Troy in February 1996, while the 114 points are their third-most overall.

PREDICTION: Buffalo 93, Kent State 80