Bowling Green @ Buffalo preview

Last Meeting ( Feb 1, 2019 ) Buffalo 88, Bowling Green 92

The five seniors for No. 20 Buffalo will look to finish off the regular season in style Friday in a Mid-American Conference game against visiting Bowling Green. CJ Massinburg, Nick Perkins, Jeremy Harris, Dontay Caruthers and Montell McRae have a chance to finish unbeaten at home while setting a school record for wins in a season but to do so, the Bulls must avenge an earlier loss to the Falcons.

The Bulls tied the mark of 27 wins set by last season's squad by narrowly escaping with a victory Tuesday at Ohio, a team they beat by 47 points two weeks earlier. "Give Ohio a lot of credit, they came ready to play and gave us all we could handle," coach Nate Oats told the media following an 82-79 triumph that locked up a second straight MAC regular season title for his team. "With that being said, I am extremely proud of this group for everything they have accomplished. Winning the regular season was just one of our goals for this season." Buffalo led by as many as 10 points late in the second half before surviving an Ohio rally thanks to five points from Harris and seven free throws from Massinburg. The Falcons and sophomore leading scorer Justin Turner stumbled down the stretch, posting a 5-4 mark since an 92-88 victory over Buffalo on Feb. 1, including losses in three of their last four games.

TV: 6 p.m. ET, ESPNU

ABOUT BOWLING GREEN (20-10, 12-5 MAC): Dylan Frye burned the Bulls for a season-high 10 field goals and 25 points last month but the junior had help from mainstays Turner and Demajeo Wiggins. The 6-2 guard from Miami, Fla., who is sixth in school history with 174 3-pointers, made a handful of key baskets at the end of the first half and in the beginning of the second to keep the Falcons in it before Wiggins, Turner and Michael Laster led them the rest of the way. Wiggins, the No. 3 rebounder in school history with 1,033 boards, made 11 free throws, including four in the final two minutes, and Laster scored nine points in the second half.

ABOUT BUFFALO (27-3, 15-2): Harris is only in his second season with the Bulls, but is close to joining Massinburg and Perkins in the 1,000-point club. The 6-7 guard from Greensboro, N.C., notched his first 20-point game since mid-January in the win over Ohio and now stands at 954 career points. Harris has not been as efficient as he was a season ago when he averaged 15.5 points, losing nearly 70 points from his shooting percentage and close to 150 points from his 3-point percentage, but is still a dangerous scorer for the Bulls as his five 20-point outings would attest.

TIP-INS

1. The Bulls will next play March 14 in the quarterfinals of the MAC Tournament against the No. 8 or No. 9 seed.

2. The Falcons, who have not won at Alumni Arena since 2011, snapped a nine-game losing streak to the Bulls to forge a 19-19 tie in the series.

3. Buffalo will retire the jersey of Rasaun Young (1993-98) who is second in school history in points (1,908) and field goals made (648) and attempted (1,366).

PREDICTION: Buffalo 97, Bowling Green 85