Ball St. @ Buffalo preview

Last Meeting ( Jan 6, 2018 ) Buffalo 83, Ball St. 63

Buffalo was able to hold on to its national ranking for a 12th consecutive week heading into Tuesday's Mid-American Conference matchup with visiting Ball State. The No. 17 Bulls, who had been tied with the 1961-62 Bowling Green squad for the longest run in MAC history, will put another streak - 20 straight home wins - on the line when they face the Cardinals.

After drawing the ire of coach Nate Oats with several subpar efforts, one of which resulted in a loss last week at Northern Illinois, the Bulls responded to an early challenge from Kent State on Friday to avoid back-to-back league losses for the first time since January 2017. "Kent State is a hard place to play and they came out ready to go and punched us in the mouth early, but then our guys settled in and made the game a lot more difficult for them," Oats told the media. Dontay Caruthers was instrumental to the effort as the senior took turns guarding Kent State's Jaylin Walker, a 23.3-point per game scorer who had 10 points to help the Golden Flashes build a 25-12 lead after eight minutes but was then limited to 11 the rest of the way. Tayler Persons recorded his eighth 20-point game of the season and 27th of his career Saturday at Ohio, but it wasn't enough for the Cardinals to avoid a fifth loss in its last six games.

TV: 7 p.m. ET, ESPN3

ABOUT BALL STATE (11-9, 2-5 MAC): The Cardinals are 5-4 in true road games, but have been a much better team away from Muncie, Ind. James Whitford's squad, which is second in the league in field goal percentage (49.5) and free throw shooting (71.8), is shooting nearly 100 points better on the road and has enjoyed a plus-5.3 scoring margin on the road compared to minus-8.7 at home. The Cardinals, who have lost four league games by a total of 13 points, boast the top two shooters in the MAC in juniors Tahjai Teague (59.7 percent) and K.J. Walton (55.8) and have two players (Teague and Trey Moses) in the top 10 in rebounding.

ABOUT BUFFALO (19-2, 6-1 MAC): CJ Massinburg has scored 74 points over the last three contests, which is tied for his most over a three-game span. The senior, who is the No. 4 scorer in the MAC at 18.2 points - two spots ahead of Persons, also netted 74 from Nov. 29 to Dec. 6 last season. Massinburg has shot 52.4 percent from the field, 45.8 percent from beyond the arc and 82.6 percent from the line while averaging 6.7 rebounds and 3.0 assists over the last three games for the Bulls, who are tied for first in the MAC and were 13th in the nation with Toledo with 17.5 assists per contest entering Monday.

TIP-INS

1. The Bulls are first in the MAC and were ninth nationally in turnover margin (plus-4.5).

2. Buffalo has taken four of the last five games from Ball State, including an 83-63 victory in their only meeting last season, to forge a 15-15 tie in the series.

3. Persons, who is one of five players in Ball State history with 1,000 points and 300 assists, is second in the MAC to Walker in free throw shooting (82.4 percent).

PREDICTION: Buffalo 89, Ball State 84