Kent State men’s basketball (15-6, 6-2 Mid-American Conference) came into Friday’s contest with a six-game winning streak and stood alone at the top of the MAC.

But after starting off slow against the University at Buffalo (14-6, 5-3 MAC), the Flashes were unable to recover, losing the late-night ESPN U televised game 80-55.

The Flashes were in a 20-point hole at the half, 45-25, and would go on to suffer one of their worst losses of the season.

Buffalo is the only team this season to score at least 80 points on the Flashes.

Much of the damage came from the three-point line: The Bulls shot eight three-pointers, the most any team has made on the Flashes this season.  Bowling Green is the only other team to make eight three-pointers against the Flashes on Jan. 7.

“When you start making shots, it becomes easier to make them,” coach Rob Senderoff said. “They made shots early and just kept on making them.”

Senior forward Xavier Ford led the Bulls and netted a season-high 25 points, including 17 in the first half, and pulled down nine rebounds. Junior forward Justin Moss contributed 13 points as well.

Senderoff said, though disappointed about the lost, he does not want to dwell on it for too long: There are still plenty of games to play.

“At the end of the day, it’s one game,” Senderoff said. “There are a lot of good teams that get blown out. It happens.”

Though redshirt sophomore forward Jimmy Hall was the only Kent State player to score in double figures at 16 points, Senderoff wasn’t necessarily happy with his performance.

“He’s a good player. I don’t think he played great tonight,” Senderoff said. “He played well on the offensive end but defensively was a different story. “

Senderoff said he hopes that the game will serve as a wake-up call of sorts.

“We had a lot of guys play out of character, and I think that contributed to the loss,” he said.

The Flashes will travel to Kalamazoo, Michigan, to take on Western Michigan on Wednesday. Tip-off is at 7 p.m.

Contact Stephen Means II at [email protected].