A solid 40-minute team effort today carried the SUNY Oneonta men's basketball team to an 81-67 victory against Buffalo State.  The win for the Red Dragons gave them a weekend sweep in the SUNYAC to push its record to 10-6 overall and 6-4 in the SUNYAC.  The loss for the Bengals dropped them to 6-11 overall and 2-9 in conference play.
 
"It was a great collective team effort tonight," stated Head Coach Cameron Conover.  "We played real hard, and the guys followed the game plan well.  We have a deep bench, and different guys keep stepping up and making plays on both ends of the floor."
 
For the second straight game, the long-range shooting of sophomore Kevin Mackin (Nanuet/Nanuet) led the Red Dragons while rookie Jacob Rodriguez (Bronx/Mount St. Michael Academy) came off the bench to add 16 points.  Mackin buried six three-pointers and scored 21 points including a dagger three to put the game out of reach for the Bengals with 1:41 left.
 
The Bengals continued to battle throughout the second half and pulled to within seven points before Mackin drilled the three from the left corner giving Oneonta a 75-65 lead.  Buffalo would only score two more points the rest of the way while Oneonta made all of its free throws.
 
Oneonta shot an even 50 percent in the second half to finish just below 42 percent for the game.  The Red Dragons turned 14 Bengal turnovers into 18 points while scoring 16 points off second chances on the offensive glass hauling down 16 offensive rebounds.
 
The Red Dragons carved out its eventual 14-point margin of victory in the first half grabbing a 35-21 lead at the break.  Trailing 11-7 at the 13:03 mark of the opening half, Oneonta put together a 7-0 run and another run of 14-5 to take a 26-16 lead with just over six minutes to go.  Freshman Darren Brown (Fair Haven, VT/Fair Haven Union) sparked Oneonta off the bench with six points as did classmate Joseph Bull (Bronx/Mount St. Michael) who added four points.  Brown finished the game with six points and Bull finished with six points.
 
Midway through the second half, Buffalo made a run at Oneonta and cut its deficit to just three points.  Sir Quintin Campbell and Mike Henry fueled the comeback for the Bengals.  Henry led all scorers in today's contest with 23 points while Campbell added 17 points and a game high 11 rebounds.
 
Eight unanswered points by Oneonta pushed its lead back to double-digits where it hovered for the remainder of the game.  Sophomore Ian Schultz (Clifton Park/CBA) scored six of the eight points during the run.