Friday’s college basketball: Buffalo fells WMU

Kalamazoo, Mich. — CJ Massinburg and Jeremy Harris scored 20 points each on Friday night and Buffalo remained the lone unbeaten team in the Mid-American Conference with an 84-74 win over Western Michigan.

The Bulls (14-5, 6-0) took the lead for keeps early in a 17-3 run capped at 66-55 on Nick Perkins’ jumper with 7:06 to go. The Broncos (11-8, 3-3) got the deficit back to eight in the final four minutes, but Harris hit a 3-pointer and Perkins added a pair of free throws to push the lead to 77-64.

Massinburg grabbed eight rebounds and Harris was 4 of 5 from 3-point range. Perkins had 18 points and nine rebounds and Wes Clark had 17 points and nine assists.

Thomas Wilder and Josh Davis had 16 points each for Western Michigan, which led for most of the first six minutes of the second half. Reggie Jones added 14 points, Brandon Johnson 12 and Bryce Moore 11.

Big Ten

(At) Wisconsin 75, Illinois 50: Ethan Happ scored 16 points, grabbed 10 rebounds and dished out five assists as Wisconsin broke out of an offensive slump.

Happ was one of four Badgers (10-10, 3-4 Big Ten) who scored in double figures, led by Brad Davison’s 18.

The win snapped a streak of three straight conference losses in which the Badgers failed to score more than 60 points. But they cracked that mark with more than 11 minutes in the game, and their 43 points to open the contest was their best mark for a half in Big Ten play this season.

Illinois (10-10, 0-7) has now lost seven straight Big Ten games to open conference play. For the first six, it was by an average of 3.5 points. But this one got away early. Down 24-18 with 8:37 left in the first half, Illinois watched the Badgers go on a 16-6 run over the next five minutes to take control.

The Illini outrebounded the Badgers 31-29. But they were 1 of 14 from 3-point range and shot 40 percent overall.

Leron Black scored 16 to lead Illinois, while Trent Frazier added 11.