Bengals extend win streak to four

After outscoring its last four opponents by an average of 30 points per contest, the Buffalo State men's basketball team headed into the weekend riding a four-game win streak.

The Bengals (17-3, 10-3 SUNYAC) extended their winning streak to six games over the weekend, defeating Plattsburgh (7-14, 5-9 SUNYAC), 92-74 on Friday before adding a come-from-behind 88-79 victory over Potsdam (4-17, 2-12 SUNYAC) on Saturday.

Buffalo State quickly jumped out to a 7-4 lead over Plattsburgh early in the first half, but the Cardinals capitalized on a few of the Bengals' 14 first-half turnovers and responded with an 18-4 run to go up 22-14 midway through the first half.

A timeout late in the first half helped the Bengals find their way back into the game and sparked a 15-2 run to take a 36-32 lead into the break.

"When we're playing well, I think we're a pretty good team," said head coach Fajri Ansari. "Just like the momentum can carry over when you're playing well, sometimes it can carry over the same way when you're not playing well.

It's kind of like a domino effect," Ansari continued. "We would have one turnover and then another turnover. We had to dig down and make some good plays and try to get our momentum going back in a positive way."

Buffalo State came out on fire early in the second half. Jake Simmons hit four of the Bengals' six three-pointers during a 20-8 run that put the Bengals up 56-40 with 15:59 left to go in the game.

The Bengals led by as much as 38 points until 7:24 remaining in the game when Plattsburgh finished on a 24-4 run.

"In the second half, we turned it up and ran well," Ansari said. "We got a good comfortable lead and we just let them score a lot of points in the last couple of minutes. I wanted to get the starters out and get them ready for the next game."

Simmons led the team with 25 points and ended up with seven of Buffalo State's 12 three-pointers. Roderick Epps came off the bench with 11 points while starters Ahmed Nagaya and Justin Mitchell had 10 points each.

Simmons also passed Jerry Young's 1,389 career points in the game to move into second place on the Buffalo State all-time scoring list. He finished the weekend with 1,423 career points, trailing only Randy Smith, who has 1,712.

"It feels very good," Simmons said. "I know Jerry Young was a very good player, so it feels really good to accomplish something like that. I just really want to catch Randy Smith, though, so I can become a legend and so I can be one of the greatest players in Buffalo State history."

Saturday's contest with Potsdam proved to be more of a challenge for Buffalo State, despite a 13-5 run to start the game.

Both teams traded scores for the remainder of the first half and Buffalo State went into the break with a 45-41 lead. The Bengals shot 63 percent from the field in the first half, but foul trouble and eight turnovers kept the Bears in the game.

In the beginning of the second half, both teams came out exchanging buckets, but Potsdam eventually went on a 19-9 run capped off by a Greg Torchon layup to put the Bears up 70-63 with 9:27 to play left in the game.

However, Buffalo State ended the game on a 19-4 run to cap off the win. Justin Mitchell played a big role in helping secure the victory and finished with a team-high 23 points and nine rebounds.

"In the second half, we just started shooting to try to get ourselves a bigger lead," Mitchell said. "We went to the basket and attacked the basket early, but instead of layups we were settling for jump shots and three-pointers. Those are shots that usually fall, but in this case they weren't falling.

I think that's the big reason why we shot so poorly in the second half," Mitchell continued. "If we attacked more, we probably would've won by a lot more."

Simmons finished with 20 points and seven rebounds. Nico McLean had 13 points and Norman Simmons and Ahmed Nagaya had 8 points each.

The Bengals have a two game home stand this weekend and will face Geneseo (10-10, 8-5 SUNYAC) at 8 p.m. on Friday before hosting Brockport (9-11, 7-6 SUNYAC)at 4 p.m. on Saturday.

A.J. Speier can be reached by email at speier.record@live.com.