Against Buffalo, Eagles go quietly in first round of CIT
To interject some drama in its opening game in the Collegeinsider.com tournament, American University spotted Buffalo nine points at the half. Bad idea.
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Burned by the three-point shooting of Zach Filzen and hindered by its own shooting woes, AU never mustered a rally and was bounced from the 32-team tournament, 78-61, by the big, talented Bulls.
With Filzen (18 points) doing all of his shooting (6 of 9) from beyond the arc, and 6-7 Javon McCrea (18 points) and 6-10 Mitchell Watt (15 points) getting their way inside, Buffalo of the Mid-American Conference advanced to the second round of the CIT for the second straight year. The Bulls (20-10) also reached 20 wins for the fourth time in the 13-year tenure of Reggie Witherspoon.
In its first appearance in the CIT and with only 256 fans in attendance at quiet Bender Arena during spring break, American (20-12) showed little of its trademark feistiness. Buffalo hit 51.6 percent of its shots and 42.9 percent from the arc, getting plenty of them uncontested. AU made only 33.8 percent of its shots and 25.9 from three-point range.
“In some ways, because of spring break and everything else, it may have been better to travel,” AU coach Jeff Jones said. “It wasn’t about playing at home or anything. It was about participating in the postseason and playing another game.”
Guard Charles Hinkle (22 points, seven rebounds, two blocks, two steals) led the Eagles in his final college game. He and fellow seniors Joe Hill, Riley Grafft, Simon McCormack, and Troy Brewer (11 points, four rebounds) came off the court together to an ovation with 1:31 left, a nice gesture from Jones.
“I wanted to give those guys a chance to at least get recognized for the last time,” Jones said.
It was the end of another strong year for the Eagles who were picked in the preseason to finish in fifth place in the Patriot League, but contended for the regular season title with Lehigh, which went to the NCAA tournament, and Bucknell, which beat Arizona in the NIT on Wednesday night. It was the fourth 20-win season in the last five years for the Eagles. The other AU teams that accomplished the feat did it with much more talent.
Wednesday night was not representative of AU’s body of work in this overachieving season. Buffalo took control with a 16-0 run in the first half, fueled by a pair of three-pointers from Tony Watson (six points, three assists) and including dunks by McCrea, Watt, and Dave Barnett.
“It was the most physical team we played,” Jones said. “I’m not saying that to slight Georgetown. I’m saying that to pay Buffalo a compliment.”
AU outscored Buffalo 13-3 the rest of the half to whittle a 19-point deficit to nine and give the Eagles hope. Three-pointers by freshman John Schoof and Hinkle got AU to within five early in the second half, before Buffalo scored 19 points on its next eight possessions to take a 58-40 lead with 13:35 left.
“We were kind of hanging on and hoping for the best,” Jones said. “We just weren’t big and strong enough to hang with them.”
