BUFFALO — After finding itself down by 13 points a minute into the second half, Buffalo State battled back for the remainder of the evening, and fell just short in a 69-68 loss to visiting Brockport in a SUNYAC contest tonight at the Buffalo State College Sports Arena.
Fresh off of surpassing the 1,000 career point plateau, Lovell Smith (Buffalo/McKinley) led the Bengals in scoring with 22 points and chipped in four rebounds. Mike Henry (Syracuse/West Genesee), Jordan Glover (Buffalo/St. Joe’s) and Nico McLean (Buffalo/Amherst) all reached double-digit points as well to give Buffalo State four players with at least 11 points. Henry scored 17 and added six rebounds and five steals. Glover and McLean each scored 11.
The Bengals went back and forth with the Golden Eagles to start off the game, and took a four-point lead 12:39 in the first half. Brockport caught fire towards the end of the opening half, and took a 34-23 lead into halftime. Buffalo State trailed by as much as 13 in the first minute of the second, but showed resilience in constantly battling back for the rest of the evening. With just three minutes left in the game, Henry knocked down two free throws which was followed by two McLean layups to tie the game at 63 with just 2:19 left in the game. Brockport countered by scoring the next six points to go up 69-63 with under a minute to play. McLean connected from three with just three seconds left to cut the Golden Eagles’ lead to three. Off the ensuing Brockport inbound, Henry stole the incoming pass and fought through contact to finish with a strong layup at the buzzer. Despite Buffalo State’s pleads, a referee conference ruled that there was no foul and Brockport escaped Buffalo with a one-point victory, 69-68.
Coming into tonight’s contest, both teams were averaging well over 80 points per game. Neither team touched 70 points, the first time this season that Buffalo State has failed to reach that mark.
Buffalo State returns to the court to host Geneseo (10-3, 5-1) in a SUNYAC contest on Friday at 5:30 p.m.
from BuffaloStateAthletics.com via IFTTT
