Tony Watson didn’t make a single basket the first time his Buffalo Bulls faced Miami five weeks ago. Saturday in Oxford, Watson hardly missed.

The senior guard hit 10 of 14 shots, including six 3-pointers, and scored a career-high 31 points to lead Buffalo to a 79-71 victory against the RedHawks in front of a sparse crowd of 1,067 at Millett Hall.

“He played a phenomenal basketball game,” Bulls coach Reggie Witherspoon said of Watson, who also was 5 of 5 from the free-throw line and had six assists with no turnovers while playing the entire 40 minutes.

Junior forward Javon McCrea added 20 points and a game-high six rebounds to help Buffalo (11-15, 6-6 Mid-American Conference) win its third in a row.

“Tony Watson and Javon McCrea were better than we were,” Miami coach John Cooper said after watching his team suffer its eighth loss in the last nine games to fall to 8-16 overall and 3-9 in the MAC.

“I thought Tony Watson, from beginning to end, controlled the basketball game,” Cooper continued. “He was just unbelievable, as far as being able to knock down shots and some of the decisions he made.”

Watson was 6-of-6 from the floor, including 4-of-4 from beyond the arc, in the first half as the lead changed hands six times. Midway through the second half, he hit back-to-back treys to stretch a one-point lead to seven.

“Once a shooter like that gets going making shots, it can be a long day,” Miami junior Allen Roberts said of Watson, who was 0-for-4 in the teams’ first meeting Jan. 12, a 58-57 RedHawks win.

The Bulls eventually built a 12-point lead with eight minutes to go, but the RedHawks closed to within one on a Will Sullivan trey with 1:22 remaining.

That, however, would be the last field goal Miami would make as Buffalo closed the game on a 9-2 run.

“We get to the last few minutes and we lose our heads and we lose out wits,” Cooper said. “I’m the only person you can blame that on. As much as we talk about it and work on it, I still haven’t gotten the message across to this group on how to close out a game.”

Drew McGhee led Miami with 13 points, while Will Felder and Allen Roberts each had 10. Quinten Rollins added five assists, five rebounds and a career high-tying five steals. And Vince Legarza set a career high with five assists, all of which came in the first half.