Correction appended.
Ohio couldn't complete the upset of No. 19 Buffalo on Tuesday night in The Convo, falling 82-79. The win secured a regular season Mid-American Conference Championship for Buffalo and sealed Ohio's fate, as it will be on the road in the first-round of the conference tournament.
Here are three stats that mattered from the loss:
15
In the first game this season between the two teams, Ohio lost by 47 points and Buffalo knocked down 19 3s, a program record. While the Bulls didn't hit 19 on Tuesday night, they came close with 15 3-pointers. Throughout the entire game it seemed whenever Ohio made it a one or two possession game, a Bull would knock down a 3 to stretch the lead back to a five-point lead.
54
The Bobcats entered the game knowing it wasn't going to be able to knock down 3s or outshoot the Bulls from beyond the arc. So Ohio focused on finding the easy layups, finding the simple pick and rolls to Jason Carter and Doug Taylor most of the night. Taylor finished with a career-high 20 points, as the Bobcats scored 54 points in the paint.
11
Ohio held itself to just 11 turnovers on the night, three below its season average. With the smaller number of turnovers, the Bobcats were able to stick around with the Bulls and makeup for Ohio's lack of 3s made.
9
True freshman Connor Murrell came off the bench and delivered the Bobcats a huge boost in the second half, scoring 9 points. From a two-handed dunk to driving down the lane and drawing contact, he had a lot to do with the Bobcats sticking with a top-ranked team the entire team.
Correction: A previous version of this report incorrectly stated the result of the game. The article has been updated to reflect the most accurate information.
