Post Classifieds
Bengals split pair before SUNYAC play begins
By A.J. Speier
On November 29, 2012
The Buffalo State men's basketball team opened a four-game home stand with a pair
of games that went down to the wire.
The Bengals (2-1) dropped a 97-89 decision to Nazareth (3-1) Saturday before
rallying from down 15 to defeat Medaille (3-1) 98-84 on Tuesday.
In Saturday's game, Nazareth jumped out to an early 17-10 lead, but guards Jake
Simmons and Roderick Epps heated up and finished with 15 points apiece by the
end of the first half. The Bengals trailed 34-26 with 5:11 left in the half but went on a
23-8 run to head into the break with a 49-42 lead.
"We didn't establish the inside game," head coach Fajri Ansari said. "Our guys
weren't physical enough and they allowed them to get pushed out of position.
They're going to have to learn from that. They neutralized our height advantage by
working harder."
The Golden Flyers reclaimed the lead in the second half by going on a 33-15 run,
capped off by three consecutive 3-pointers by forward Brad Ford to give the team a
75-64 lead midway through the second half.
"He just seemed to be open all of the time," forward Ryan Carney said. "I'm not sure
that it was hard to guard him, especially out in the perimeter. He's not that fast, but
he's strong and he works hard down low. It was more that we just left him open on
the perimeter and down low, he outworked us."
Buffalo State attempted a late comeback, but after cutting the deficit to 89-87 with
2:42 left in the game, Nazareth guard Tyshun Stephens hit a 3-pointer. The Bengals
were forced to commit fouls in an effort to conserve time, but the Golden Flyers hit
their free throws and were able to prevail.
Epps and Simmons combined for 55 of the Bengals' 89 points. Epps finished with a
career-high 33 points and Simmons had 22 points.
"When the ball goes inside to them, they've just got to finish," Simmons said. "We
had a lot of missed layups. Every night we're not going to be able to score that many
points, so sometimes they're going to just have to step it up and make their shots,
layups and just finish."
In Tuesday's contest against Medaille, the Bengals fell behind 19-4 after guard
Jammal Coleman exploded for eight of the Mavericks' first ten points.
Medaille managed to keep its lead in double digits for the majority of the first
half, but the Bengals finished the half on a 12-5 run, trailing just 45-41 entering
intermission.
"I think it was more of us just not being ready to play," Ansari said. "I don't think it
was anything so complicated. We went zone because I know they were anticipating
that we were going to run something else, but we weren't aggressive enough, so we
had to stay with man the rest of the game."
Simmons said that the Bengals have to be more confident defensively.
"We had to instill confidence in each other on defense," Simmons said. "We know we
can score. It's just the fact that we were giving up too many points. We don't mind
scoring a little bit of points as long as we're playing good defense, but they were
getting too many easy shots."
Medaille extended its lead to 56-49 with 16:52 left, but Epps scored seven straight
points to spark a 13-4 run to give the Bengals their first lead with 11:12 left.
"We didn't rush this time," center Seth Runge said. "Guys cut to the basket and we
passed the ball well in the second half. In the first half, I had a couple of turnovers,
but in the second half, we really cut down. We were patient and made the inside
pass for the layup."
The Bengals began to pull away when Runge hit a jumper and Simmons and Epps
each hit 3-pointers to give the Bengals the lead. They never looked back.
Simmons said that playing in front of the home crowd helped.
"The crowd gives you that extra motivation and that extra energy when you're
down," Simmons said. "When you've got some fans here, it's going to give you that
motivation, even if you're down twenty, they still pump you up. Roderick and I
hitting those big shots, really got the crowd into it."
Medaille fell into foul trouble with a quarter of the game left and the Bengals
capitalized by making their free throws, ending the game on a 30-13 run.
Simmons had a team-high 24 points, making 11-of-12 free throws. Epps had 23
points, including 19 in the second half.
The Bengals shot 61.3 percent from the field in the second half and finished with a
44-22 advantage in points in the paint. They outrebounded the Mavericks 38-28.
"In the second half, we just all got together and told ourselves we had to win this
game," Epps said. "The crowd was into it and my team was working together. We
were really flowing, so it was easy for me to knock down shots."
The Bengals open conference play against Oneonta at 8 p.m. on Friday at the Sports
Arena. They also host New Paltz at 4 p.m. Saturday.
Jake Simmons has 1,672 career points, 85 shy of matching Randy Smith's all-time
school record.
"I'm just looking forward to starting out the conference play undefeated," Runge
said. "This weekend is big for us. We can't afford to lose home games and especially
can't afford to lose conference games early, so I'm just ready to play."
A.J. Speier can be reached by email at speier.record@live.com.
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