The Oswego State men's basketball team held a healthy lead over Buffalo State throughout Saturday afternoon's 84-69 victory in Max Ziel Gymnasium. Oswego's win improves its conference mark to 4-1 while moving to 10-2 overall.
The Lakers were paced by Daniel Ross' career-high tying 28 points, a milestone he set in this season second game against Neumann University in the championship round of the Max Ziel Tournament.
Rashawn Powell was 7-for-9 (77.8%) from the field for 19 points but snapped his three-game streak of double-doubles, corralling seven rebounds on the night. Mark Candelario, however, did manage a double-double, the second of his career, scoring 10 points while snagging a team-high 11 boards.
Brain Sortino was the final Laker in double digits in the point column, notching 10 with a team-best five assists.
Oswego never trailed in the game, opening on a 16-6 run to earn its first of many double-digit leads throughout the contest. The largest lead for the Lakers came in the closing seconds of the game, holding a 17-point advantage with 44 seconds left.
At the half, Oswego led by 14 at 40-26, but Buffalo State would try to battle back in the second period. The Bengals started the second half on a 9-2 run to cut the Laker lead in half and closed the margin to six with just over 14 minutes remaining.
Oswego repeatedly answered the challenge, however, bumping the last back to double digits each time Buffalo State had a spurt. The Lakers weathered the last Bengal push at 4:12 when they reduced the lead to 72-65, allowing just four Buffalo State points the rest of regulation. Oswego ended the game on a 12-4 run to secure the victory.
The Lakers will be back in action at 8 p.m. on Tuesday when they welcome New Paltz for another SUNYAC meeting.
