Buffalo State spoiled Pitt-Bradford’s men’s basketball season opener Tuesday night, beating the Panthers 90-69 in a non-conference game.
Buffalo State used the three-point shooting of Dom Grayer, who hit five of 10 from behind the arc for a game-high 23 points.
The Bengals, who shot 54 percent from the field, connected for nine of 23 from the three-point line.
Lovell Smith recorded a double-double, scoring 18 points and grabbing 12 boards for the Bengals. Mike Henry added 15 points and Jordan Chateau 13 to round out the double-digit scorers for Buffalo State.
Evan Greening recorded a double-double, pulling down 13 rebounds while scoring 21 points to lead the Panthers.
UPB jumped to an early 6-3 lead until Grayer hit the first of his threes to tie the game at 6-6. Greening tied the game at 10-10 with 13:38 left in the first half. Greening added a free throw to put the Panthers up 11-10 before the Bengals pushed the lead to 16-11.
UPB tied the game 20-20 with 8:54 to go in the half behind Fateem Brockington’s two free throws. Christian Perkins’ layup put the Panthers up 22-20. Greening connected on a jump shot to give the Panthers their biggest lead of the night 24-20 with 7:36 to go in the half.
Zach Ciezki buried a deep three to cut the lead to 24-23 and a layup by Henry gave Buffalo State a 25-24 lead. Greening’s layup gave UPB its last lead of the night 26-25 with 6:17 left in the half as Buffalo ran off six unanswered points to jump to a 31-26 lead. Greening scored to cut the lead to 31-28 only to have the winners use a 12-4 run to take a 43-32 lead at intermission.
“We didn’t do a very good job of finding Grayer in that stretch and that gave them confidence,” said Britt Moore, UPB head coach.
Adding to UPB’s problems was the fact Buffalo State outscored the Panthers 15-2 from the bench.
The visitors used a 9-1 spurt in the second half to open a 52-33 lead.
UPB’s Manny Welch buried a deep three to cut the lead to 52-36 and Greening added another basket for a 52-38 score with 16:52 left.
The Bengals would then go on an 18-10 run to open a 70-48 lead en route to the victory.
“We had two scrimmages before this game, one was bad the other good,” Moore said. “We just don’t have consistency in our play. We have to find a blend and we haven’t found that yet. We seem to go through periods where we are aggressive and periods where we get passive.
“We need an alpha dog to step up and take control. We got behind and we needed to make stops. They had some baskets go in that normally wouldn’t. We will get back to work and see what we can do to get better before Friday’s game with Otterbein.”
The Panthers play Otterbein in the Geneva College Coaches vs. Cancer Tip-off Tournament on Friday in Beaver Falls.
BUFFALO STATE (90)
Grayer 8-2-3-23, Smith 9-0-0-18, Henry 6-2-3-15, Chateau 4-5-6-13, Ciezki 3-0-0-8, Mair 2-1-2-6, Jordan 1-2-3-4, Spence 1-0-0-2, Moise 0-1-2-1, Glover 0-0-0-0, Holloway 0-0-1-0, Daniel 0-0-0-0, McQueen 0-0-0-0, Calvo 0-0-0-0, Totals 34-13-20-90
PITT-BRADFORD (69)
Greening 10-1-2-21, Welch 3-0-1-8, Niedermeyer 4-0-0-8, Dahlstrand 1-3-5-5, Brockington 1-2-2-4, Harris 2-0-0-4, Tennies 2-0-0-4, Mitchell 1-1-3-3, Reigal 1-0-1-2, Severino 0-2-2-2, Perkins 3-2-4-8, Haenel 0-0-0-0, Kinsey 0-0-0-0, Blose 0-0-0-0, Totals 28-11-20-69.
Halftime: 43-32
Three-point FGs: Buffalo State – Grayer 5, Ciezki 2, Henry 1, Mair 1; Pitt-Bradford – Welch 2.
