Buffalo State Drops a Pair at Home

Heading into the weekend, the Buffalo State mens basketball team found themselves sitting in second place in the SUNYAC standings, trailing first-place Oswego by three games. But any hope of the Bengals earning home court advantage throughout the SUNYAC playoffs evaporated following their two-loss weekend.

Buffalo State (18-5, 11-5 SUNYAC) had their six-game winning streak snapped, dropping a pair of down-to-the-wire games at home before rebounding on the road, defeating Fredonia (13-9, 8-8 SUNYAC), 70-67, on Tuesday. They lost 84-82 to Geneseo (11-12, 9-7 SUNYAC) on Friday and to Brockport (11-12, 9-7 SUNYAC),79-70, on Saturday.

The first ten minutes of play in the Geneseo game were tightly contested, as Buffalo State and the Knights traded baskets with each other, before Roderick Epps came off the bench, hitting two three-pointers to help spark a 24-14 run as the Bengals pulled away to take a 42-33 lead heading into halftime.

The second half started off similar to the first except this time it was the Knights who would go on a 22-7 run which was capped off by a Ryan Riefenhauser layup to put Geneseo up 73-63 with 5:15 left to go in the game.

Buffalo State closed to within one point after a 17-8 run set up by a pair of Justin Mitchell layups and a Jake Simmons three-pointer to make the game 81-80. Mitchell missed a free throw with 1:01 remaining and the Bengals saw the game slip away from them.

The Knights made three of their four free throw attempts and held the Bengals scoreless until an Ahmed Nagaya tip-in closed the gap to within two points with two seconds remaining. However, time ran out on Buffalo State and the Bengals suffered their fourth defeat of the season and second to Geneseo.

“In the second half we started out with two plays that we didn’t execute and we just went flat from there on,” said head coach Fajri Ansari. “We gave up too many easy baskets. We only needed four points and we gave up at least ten on backdoors and by not boxing out.”

Mitchell led the Bengals with 21 points, 16 rebounds and three blocks in the losing effort. Nagaya and Jake Simmons finished with 14 points each.

Saturday’s contest with Brockport saw seniors Nagaya, Norman Simmons, and Mark Gross each make their final regular season appearance at home.

Brockport would ultimately spoil the Bengals’ senior day though. Buffalo State took a 22-21 lead with 8:25 remaining in first half, but the Golden Eagles ended the first half on a 12-5 run and entered the break with a 35-30 lead.

The Bengals struggled to offensively, shooting just 27.8 percent from the field in the first half. Roderick Epps, Nico McLean and Nagaya combined for 25 of the Bengals’ 30 points at the break.

“I feel like we weren’t attacking the basket enough,” said McLean. “We were taking a lot of quick shots and rushing our offense.”

Both teams traded scores in the second half, but the Golden Eagles didn't give up their lead and the Bengals never drew closer than two points.

Buffalo State’s shooting woes continued as they finished the game shooting 31.9 percent from the field and 13.3 percent from beyond the arc.

Following the losses, the Bengals learned they may be without Mitchell for an extended period of time due to injury.

“We’re going to have to execute and we’re going to have to be a little more disciplined,” Ansari said. “We don’t have any margin for error. We’re already hurting a little on the front line as it is. So now it’s going to be that much more of a challenge."

"Guard play is going to be key," Ansari continued. "The guards are going to have to direct and do a better job of taking care of the ball.”

Jake Simmons and McLean finished with 16 points apiece. Epps had 10 points. Nagaya had nine points and eight rebounds while Norman Simmons had eight points and three steals.

The Bengals have two road games remaining on their schedule and will look to get back on track against Oswego (20-3, 16-0 SUNYAC) at 8 p.m. on Friday before heading to Cortland (17-6, 12-4 SUNYAC) to finish the regular season at 4 p.m. on Saturday.

“We plan on winning out,” said Norman Simmons. “You can’t go into a game expecting to lose. We still have some ways to go, but we know what lies ahead of us, so we’ll take care of business.”