Ohio Bobcats 95 at Buffalo Bulls 83 (NCAA Basketball, MAC) - January 31, 2026

Saturday was doubleheader day for me, starting with an afternoon visit to Alumni Arena, home of Buffalo Bulls basketball. The venue is located on the university's North Campus in Amherst, with parking available in the Slee Lot, just a minute or two away on foot. One thing worth noting is that it is not the University of Buffalo, but University at Buffalo; the only other school to use 'at' instead of 'of' seems to be Albany.

The box office is just inside the main entrance with three price points: $39 for the 100 level, $29 for the 200s and $19 for the 300s and baseline seats. Regular readers will know that I opted for the cheapest and moved around during the game.

There is an exterior concourse on the first level with a couple of concession stands and some displays. The trophies in the Building Champions case are just replicas, something I had never seen before.

The school's Athletics Hall of Fame is also here, the most notable name for me is Joe Hesketh, who sports an Expos cap in his online photo.

A collage can also be found along this corridor, which leads to the 100 level seats, but only on this side as the concourse itself does not encircle the building.

The photo below shows how the north side of the seating bowl is structured, with the three separate levels clearly delineated. All sideline seats are chairbacks, while the baselines are bleachers.

The south side is a single level however, and these are the most expensive 100-level seats, though the top few rows are at the same distance from the floor as the cheaper 200-level seats across the way. Capacity here is 6,783, quite a bit less than the 8,000 that it sat when it opened in 1982.

The asymmetrical design is also apparent in the west end zone, where the 'S' section of the Bulls painted on the benches is not lined up with the court, causing one commenter on X to state that his OCD was "going nuts".

If you want to move from the north side to the other sections, you have to walk up to the second floor, where there is a narrow exterior corridor that does encircle the seating bowl.

It is here that you will find some actual trophies and other memorabilia from past accomplishments.

Back in 2018, the team was a 13-seed in their third tournament appearance and they upset Arizona (game ball below) before losing to Kentucky; the following year they were a 5-seed and beat Arizona State before losing to eventual runner-up Texas Tech. 

The second level also has an interior walkway which is really a running track, and mascot Victory E. Bull got some laps in during the game.

The view below is from the northwest corner of the running track, which is where you need to stand if you want to make a quick exit to get to another game as I did.

Retired numbers and conference championships are on large banners throughout the seating bowl. There are dot matrix boards at either end, with a videoboard hanging above center court.

Section 302 is a family section and tickets are only $10 here, but you have to buy them in advance from what I can tell.

Overall, Alumni Arena is much larger than I expected (it is the second largest on-campus arena in New York behind the dome in Syracuse) but still a good place for basketball, with seats close to the action if you wish. I particularly like the interior running track which allows for easy movement from section to section. Buffalo has a strong basketball history and although there is no pro team there now, a visit to the city during the season should include a trip here.



The Game

The Ohio Bobcats (11-11, 5-5 MAC) were the visitors and wearing dark green, just like Siena the night before at Niagara. They were 3.5-point underdogs despite beating Buffalo (14-7, 4-5) 91-80 at home three weeks prior.

Tied at 15 near the midway point of the half, Buffalo went a bit cold and were outscored 18-7 over seven minutes and the Bobcats pushed the lead to 15, going to the locker rooms up 46-31.

Just before the under-12 timeout in the second half, Buffalo's Angelo Brizzi completed the hoop-and-harm to get the Bulls back within 6 at 58-52 and the lead bounced between 6 and 12 until late in the game.

The Bulls could simply not make shots when they needed and a 9-2 Bobcat burst over three minutes sealed the match. For some reason, Buffalo decided to foul down 11 with a minute to go, but that just prolonged the game, which I found frustrating as I had a 90-minute drive ahead of me.

Ohio's Jackson Paveletzke made six free throws in the final minute as Ohio upset the Bulls 95-83. Offensive rebounds and turnovers were the difference as the Bobcats had 13 and 6 respectively, while Buffalo was exactly reversed at 6 and 13; Ohio had 12 second chance points and 12 points off turnovers, Buffalo's totals were 9 and 5. Javan Simmons led the winners with 24 points (and no three-point attempts, a rarity these days), while Daniel Freitag had 25 for Buffalo.

The game took 1:57 and ended just before 4:00, so I was able to make the drive to St. Bonaventure in time to tour that amazing arena. More on that in the next post.

Notes

This was my 1,100th unique venue at which to see a game.

Buffalo played undefeated Miami of Ohio the following Tuesday and lost 73-71 after losing to the RedHawks in overtime on the road. So maybe this was a bit of a trap game.

Best,

Sean