The Buffalo State men’s basketball team opened its season Tuesday night, carrying the burden of high expectations following last year’s impressive season.
With a dominant 141-93 non-conference victory over D’Youville, the Bengals delivered on those expectations in a big way and gave the energetic fans at the Sports Arena plenty of reasons to cheer.
Ranked 19th in the nation by D3Hoops.com, the Bengals (1-0) rode their fast break offense to a new single-game scoring record. The previous record was 138 points, scored against Marietta in 2005.
“We could have had more,” junior forward Justin Mitchell said, unsatisfied. Mitchell finished with 12 points.
All 16 Bengals found the score sheet. Junior Jake Simmons led the Bengals with 23 points. Senior Ahmed Nagaya had a career-best 23 points to go along with six rebounds and three blocks. Junior Stephen Alexander added 13 points and senior Norman Simmons contributed eight points, eight assists and three steals.
“It goes back to what our coach says,” Norman Simmons said. “We’re a fast break team that tries to run teams off the court. We did a good job of it tonight and hopefully it carries into the rest of the season.”
A couple of freshmen also earned valuable experience off the bench for the Bengals as Roderick Epps scored 14 points, while Justin Stokes added 8.
“We’re happy with them and we plan on having them in the rotation,” head coach Fajri Ansari said of the freshman pair. “They have confidence. They don’t necessarily have experience, but I’m confident in their ability. It’s good to know that we have players that can come off the bench and help us out.”
Mitchell said it was a good start for the pair, but there’s still work to do.
“The freshmen played good, but they have to speak up more,” he said. “They have to speak up and control the floor more.”
While Ansari is happy overall, he knows that there are areas of the game the Bengals need to clean up before their next game.
“I was not happy with the matador defense that we played late in the game, just swinging at people and letting them go by,” he said. “We got caught up in the excitement of the crowd.”
Despite Ansari’s dissatisfaction, the Bengals forced 34 D’Youville turnovers versus 21 of their own.
“Our defense was our offense at times,” Simmons said. “We forced a lot of turnovers and converted them into points.”
Freshman guard Parris Purcelle put the record breaking two points on the board in a way that captured the way the Bengals’ offense had played the entire game — with authority. Purcelle dunked it with just under a minute left to play, emitting a large roar from the crowd.
The Bengals next game is against Pitt-Bradford at 8 p.m. Tuesday in the Sports Arena.
“We played (Pitt-Bradford) last year, but they have a few different players and a new coach,” Ansari said. “We’re going to focus on what our style of play is and make adjustments as necessary.”
Tom Gallagher can be reached by email at gallagher.record@live.com.