No. 22 Buffalo hopes to keep ball rolling vs. Marist

To Buffalo opponents, Pampona must look something like this.

The No. 22 Bulls scored the first 15 points in a 110-71 victory over Dartmouth on Wednesday, rolling to their fourth straight victory and tying the school record for points since moving to the NCAA Division I level in 1994-95.

"We force teams to play fast," coach Nate Oats said after the Bulls improved to 4-0 for the first time since 1986-87 when they were in Division III.

"Eventually, you are going to have to run with us, and with that tempo we are going to tire lots of teams out over the course of 40 minutes."

Buffalo has won twice since joining the AP Top 25 for the first time in school history after an overtime victory at West Virginia, and it will look to continue the record-setting streak with a home game against Marist College in the campus portion of the Basketball Hall of Fame Belfast Classic on Saturday.

Both teams will play two games in Belfast, Ireland, next weekend.

"We finally got recognized for the hard work and the blue-collar mentality that we play with every night," Bulls guard Davonta Jordan told the Buffalo News after scoring 16 points against the Big Green.

"With that (ranking) next to our name, it's just a number, but then again, it shows that we are actually recognized."

Nick Perkins, the Mid-American Conference's two-time Sixth Man of the Year, had 18 points and 10 rebounds against Dartmouth. Five players scored in double figures for Buffalo, which was without leading scorer C.J. Massinburg.

Massinburg, who is averaging 20.3 points per game and had 43 against West Virginia, suffered a Grade 1 medial collateral ligament sprain in practice on Monday and is not expected to play either game in Belfast.

"It's rough," Perkins told the News about the absence of Massinburg, "but I think it's good for some of our young guys to be able to step up and show what they can do."

Senior Dontay Caruthers had seven points and eight rebounds while starting for Massinburg against Dartmouth, when Buffalo shot 59.2 percent from the field and had a 45-34 rebounding advantage. Caruthers was the MAC defensive player of the year in 2017.

"We plugged Dontay into that same role," Oats told the News. "He's a big, strong, physical guard who plays real tough. With him and Davonta, we've really got two of the best defensive guards in the country."

Buffalo had 45 field goals, its most since getting 46 in a 1976 victory over Brockport.

"We've been a having a target on our backs since we've been winning the past year," Perkins said.

"It's something that we're used to. It got a little more intense with the number next to our name. Everybody outside of our conference is going to come at you."

Marist (1-3), predicted to finish in the upper half of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference under first-year coach John Dunne, will play its third road game. It has been in every game -- all have been decided by six points or less.

The Red Foxes had their highest point total of the year in an 82-76 victory over Columbia on Nov. 10, their only home game around losses at Army, Lehigh and Stephen F. Austin.

The next step for Marist is to close out the close ones. The Red Foxes let a 57-43 lead with less than four minutes remaining slip away in their most recent game, a 64-60 loss at Stephen F. Austin on Tuesday. They lost a nine-point lead in the final nine minutes of a 78-72 loss at Lehigh.

Senior forward Isaiah Lamb had a season-high 15 points and made four 3-pointers against Stephen F. Austin. Senior guard Brian Parker leads the team in scoring (17.8) and rebounding (5.8) and is second in assists (3.0). Parker had 25 points in a 73-69 loss to Army in the season opener.

"Everybody has bought into what Coach Dunne is saying -- freshman, sophomores, everybody on the team," Parker said. "We just have to play as one team."

The Red Foxes are two games into an stretch of eight straight away from home, a streak that ties a Division I record. They are not home again until playing Brown on Dec. 22.