BUFFALO, NY— Jake Simmons (Rochester/School of the Arts) and Roderick Epps (Uniondale/Uniondale) combined to score 47 points and Buffalo State (2-1) erased an early 15-point deficit to defeat visiting Medaille (3-0), 98-84, in a non-conference contest tonight at the Sports Arena.

Simmons led the Bengals with 24 points, including hitting 11 of 12 at the charity stripe, pushing his career total to 1,627 points, 85 shy of matching Randy Smith's all-time school scoring record.  Epps finished with 23 points, six rebounds, four assists and five steals.  Senior Seth Runge (Springville/Springville GI) tallied career highs in points and rebounds with 13 and eight respectively.  Anthony Hamer (Brooklyn/Bishop Laughlin) also scored in double-figures with 12 points and added five assists.

Jammal Coleman (Rochester/Aquinas) led Medaille with a game-high 25 points.  Tyler Stevens (Depew/Depew) added 11 points, and Josh Laureano (Puerto Rico/Kendall) had seven points and six assists.

The Mavericks jumped out to a 19-4 lead eight minutes into the game.  The Bengals pushed the pace for the remainder of the first half, outscoring Medaille 37-26 over the final 12 minutes of the period to cut the deficit to just 45-41 at the intermission.  Buffalo State finally took its first lead of the game at 62-60 with just over 11 minutes left in the second half, and then went ahead for good on a 3-pointer by Epps to push the score to 76-73 with 5:36 remaining.  The Bengals hit nine free throws in the final two minutes to pull away.

The two teams combined to commit 44 fouls and shoot 60 free throws.  Buffalo State finished 20 for 26 at the line, while Medaille connected on 25 of 34 attempts.  The Mavs shot 50-percent from long range, hitting 11 of 22 from 3-point range.  The Bengals were just 6 of 17 from beyond the arc, but shot 54-percent from the field and outscored the Mavericks 44-22 in the paint. 

Buffalo State will open SUNYAC play this Friday at home against Oneonta at 8 p.m.