CLEVELAND — The term big-three has become synonymous with modern-day basketball jargon.
Bowling Green contained a lethal trio of Buffalo hoopers in Saturday’s MAC championship game.
But the Bulls — nationally ranked and one of the best teams the conference has ever had — leaned on three
other stars, built a 15-point halftime lead, watched BG erase it, and mounted another late run for an
87-73 win.
The conference crown is Buffalo’s second in as many years and its fourth in the past five seasons.
They get all the credit for making plays,” BG head coach Michael Huger said. “Harris made the shots that
he needed to make, Graves made the shots that he needed to make.
"We took away the things that they wanted to do, mainly Perkins and containing Massinburg, and those
other guys stepped up and that’s what really good teams do.
"You have other guys step up and they did it in a big way tonight.”
The Bulls, ranked No. 18 nationally, improved to 31-3 and match Houston for the most wins in the country.

BG — picked to finish last in the MAC in preseason voting — nabbed the conference’s third best record,
played in its first title game since 2001-02 and finished its season schedule at 22-12.
Buffalo turned an early four-point edge into a 15-point drubbing. The Bulls went on an 11-0 run, holding
BG scoreless for more than five minutes.
Jeremy Harris, who had struggled to a 1-for-9 effort from deep in Friday’s near-loss to Central Michigan
in the semifinal, blew past the Falcons for a pair of layups in the run.
Harris added a monstrous dunk over a pair of BG defenders in the opening minutes, establishing his
presence and making it known he would not be relegated to a spot-up shooter in the corner.
“I knew I struggled a little bit yesterday, but my teammates and my coaches, they believe in me so much,
they just always tell me to keep going,” Harris said. “I think I was 1-9 and I passed up a shot and
coach (Oats) yelled at me. That’s just him like believing in me so much and I thank him for that.”
Harris hit four of his eight 3-point attempts, shot 13 of 20 from the floor and erupted for a game-high
31 points. The 6-foot-7 wing was named the Tournament MVP.
Justin Turner, who never seemed to get comfortable, stopped the run at the 7:08 mark of the first half.
The redshirt-sophomore looked off Demajeo Wiggins on the left block, took off to that same side and
bounced in a layup through contact. His free throw cut the deficit to 28-16.
Harris stepped into a rhythm 3-pointer over Wiggins from the right wing to push the lead back to 13. BG’s
response was even louder this time.
Jayvon Graves (17 points), who made seemingly every timely shot for Buffalo, took Caleb Fields off the
dribble, but Daeqwon Plowden stepped from the weakside for a demonstrative swat on the layup.
Plowden one-upped himself at the other end. After Dylan Frye’s triple bounced off the rim, Plowden
blitzed the cylinder from the baseline and slammed a one-handed putback dunk to cut the deficit to
single digits, 31-22.
“Yeah, we knew that the game is a game of runs. The game could go any direction,” said Plowden, who
scored matched Turner for a team-high 16 points.
Plowden and Fields traded 3s from the left wing and Michael Laster, who controlled the tempo late in the
half, buried a floater after an up-fake and capped the run with a long jumper to come within 39-38 at
the break.
The Falcons turned Buffalo over on the opening possession of the second half and Turner rattled in a
triple from the right wing for BG’s first lead of the game, 41-39. BG led again a minute later after
Frye’s layup. Turner’s free throw with 8:16 to play put BG ahead 65-63.
Buffalo outscored the Falcons 24-8 the rest of the way.
Davonta Jordan connected on one of his three 3s a couple steps out on the right wing. Graves added a 3 of
his own, pump-faking the closeout defender before stepping into a left-corner triple. He matched Harris’
game-high four triples.
“It was a chance that we took. It was something that we’ve seen in the film and different things like
that. They weren’t shooting the ball extremely well during their play over here and we tried to keep it
that way,” Huger said. “First half we did, they were 6-18, something like that, and they won’t wound up
getting hot.
“But it was a lot of Harris, he got really hot. He was driving, he got layups, he finished with 31, 32
points. He played extremely well. So he was the real difference in the game.
“And Graves did his job. That’s what he does, he shoots 3s and we were willing to give that up to take
away the drives and they made the plays.”
Harris, Graves and Jordan combined for 59 points. Nick Perkins, MAC player of the year CJ Massinburg and
Dontay Caruthers — who scored 28 in the midseason loss to BG — combined to go 5 of 18 for 22 points.
Perkins — the MAC’s sixth man of the year — picked up his fourth personal foul, was mildly animated
before earning his fifth and final foul on a technical with 4:25 to play. BG converted 3 of 4 free
throws to claw within three points. But Graves again connected from deep, this time wide open in the
right corner for a 77-71 lead.
Harris launched a triple from the right wing, it bounced up nearly over the cylinder but still brushed
through the net.
The bucket was the story for the MVP and the Bulls all evening, as they carried a 13-2 run into the final
buzzer.
“We battled and Buffalo was the better team tonight,” Huger said. “They played extremely well.
“(We) had a chance for a reason and we’ll be back.”