BUFFALO — It wasn’t always pretty, but at the end of the day Buffalo State punched its ticket to the SUNYAC Championships with a 60-59 conference win in a ‘Battle by the Lake’ conference contest this afternoon at the Buffalo State Sports Arena.
Dom Grayer (Brooklyn/Bishop Loughlin) led the Bengals in scoring, finishing with 15 points and forcing two steals. Lovell Smith (Buffalo/McKinley) chipped in 12 points and seven rebounds.
Both teams shot 35.7 percent from the field in the first half as the two sides ended the first with Fredonia holding a slight edge over Buffalo State, 29-27. The Blue Devils scored first in the second half, getting a jumper and a free throw to extend their lead to five a little more than a minute into the half. Buffalo State responded with a 20-6 run over the ensuing 7 minutes and 50 seconds of the second to take a 47-38 lead with 11 minutes left to play. Fredonia went on a run of its own, and tied the game at 55 with 2:36 left. Buffalo State’s Smith slammed dunk the ball home to retake a 57-55 lead with less than two to go. Fredonia answered right back with two free throws to tie it at 57 with a minute left in the game. Grayer was fouled on a three-point attempt with 38 seconds left and knocked down all three attempts to give the Bengals a 60-57 lead. Fredonia would get one more layup but Buffalo State locked down on defense over the remaining seconds of the game to escape with a 60-59 victory. With the win, the Bengals are awarded one point in the year-long, all-sports ‘Battle by the Lake’ competition with Fredonia.
The No. 5 seeded Bengals will head to Cortland to take on the No. 4 Red Dragons in the SUNYAC quarterfinals on Tuesday, Feb. 21. Time of the game is still to be determined.
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