BUFFALO, NY – Christian Smallhorne (Queens Village, NY/The Martin Luther School) scored a career-high 32 points, but it wasn't enough as the Buffalo State men's basketball team fell to Cortland on Friday evening at the Sports Arena by a final score of 83-74.
 
THE BASICS
FINAL SCORE: Cortland – 83, Buffalo State – 74
LOCATION: Sports Arena – Buffalo, NY
RECORDS: Cortland (17-7, 12-5 SUNYAC), Buffalo State (1-22, 0-17 SUNYAC)
 
INSIDE THE BENGAL BOX SCORE

• Smallhorne's 32 points came on 11-for-15 shooting from the field and 7-for-8 from behind the arc.
• Tyron Smith (New York, NY/Thurgood Marshall) finished with nine points and 14 rebounds.

 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• A steal and fastbreak dunk by Robert Richards (Williamsville, NY/Williamsville South) gave Buffalo State an early 5-2 lead.
• After the teams traded buckets, Smallhorne nailed his first triple of the game to tie the score at 22-22.
• From that point, the Red Dragons outscored Buffalo State 21-12 to lead by nine into halftime.
• Cortland led by as many as 16 early in the second half, before Smallhorne began to catch fire by draining three straight 3-pointers.
• Trailing 72-60, Buffalo State scored 12 of the next 13 points, highlighted by three more triples from Smallhorne to make it 73-72 with 5:22 remaining.
• Cortland responded with a 7-1 run of their own, and the Bengals were unable to close the gap over the final minutes.

 
FOR THE FOES

• Austin Grunder dominated, scoring 27 points and grabbing 17 rebounds.

 
SENIOR DAY

• Prior to the game, Buffalo State honored its seniors from the 2022-23 team: Smith, Argjend Imeri (Syracuse, NY/Nottingham), Abel Celestino, and DaRon Hughey.

 
UP NEXT
The Bengals complete the regular season tomorrow, heading to Brockport for a 5:00 pm tip.