MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Buffalo guard CJ Massinburg saw where generosity got him and didn’t like it one bit.
Just seconds earlier, Massinburg dished to teammate Davonta Jordan, who misfired on a potential game-tying 3-point attempt. Fortunately for the Bulls, the rebound caromed out of bounds off a West Virginia hand, giving Massinburg an immediate chance to get greedy.
“The play before, coach drew a play for me,” Massinburg said. “I took two guys with me and threw it back to one of my teammates. It was a good shot, but a little short. The next one, I was like ‘That was a great teammate move. But this one I’ve got to shoot.’”
Despite being 30 feet from the hoop, the red-hot Bulls guard chucked one up the next time he touched the ball. Like so many other shots he fired Friday night, this one scorched the net with 16 seconds left, ultimately sending the game to overtime.
“How do you let Massinburg take the last shot to tie the game?” asked deflated West Virginia coach Bob Huggins. “We were supposed to be all over him. We let him shoot it.”
Massinburg finished with a career-high 43 points and 14 rebounds on a career-best 9-of-15 shooting from 3-point range to lead the Bulls to their 99-94 overtime win. He became the first player at the WVU Coliseum to cross the 40-point barrier since Andrew Wiggins did so for Kansas on March 8, 2014.
Massinburg’s previous best of 36 points came against Ohio University in 2016. He nearly matched that in the second half alone, scoring 34 after the break and hitting seven 3s.
“Our whole deal for four days was ‘Don’t let him get started. Don’t leave him wide-open,’” Huggins said. “We let him get started.”
Massinburg was only two points away from tying Buffalo’s single-game scoring record, but improbably missed a pair of free throws near the end of overtime. He had drained his first 10 foul shots.
“We’ve got a long year,” Massinburg said. “I might get the record later.”
It would be foolish to rule out the possibility. Buffalo’s win felt like an upset in name only. The Bulls blitzed Arizona by 21 points in the first round of last year’s NCAA tournament, and the talented core cane back this year.
If the Bulls are bound to be one of March’s darlings this year – perhaps on par with Loyola-Chicago – Friday night was still a significant first step in that direction.
“We’ve never beat a team on the road that’s a top 15, top 25 team,” said Buffalo coach Nate Oats. “Even though it’s not the NCAA tournament, it’s probably a bigger win.”