Keenan Roberts Jr. drives to the hoop.
In the SUNYAC-opening contest, the Fredonia State men's basketball team took down SUNY Buffalo State University, 69-59, on Saturday. Keenan Roberts Jr. keyed the offense with 22 points, including 3-4 shooting from long range, and going 7-12 from the line. He also had team highs of nine rebounds and four steals. Malik Jemison had 11 points and five assists.
The Devils came out ready to play in the first half. They quickly jumped out to a 10-point lead. Back-to-back three pointers by Aiden Proudfoot gave the Devils a 17-7 advantage 7:30 into the game. Proudfoot would finish with eight points.
Later in the half, a 17-4 outburst would give the Devils their biggest lead of the game to that point, 36-17. Roberts keyed the offense with eight points during the run. Buffalo State would score the final three points of the half, leaving the Devils with a 36-20 lead heading into the intermission.
Early in the second half, the Bengals closed the lead to nine points, 54-45. The Devils responded by rattling off the next nine points to match their largest lead of 19 points, 64-45, with just under six minutes left to play. From there, the Devils would cruise to the victory.
The rebounding battle was narrowly won by the Devils, 43-41,
The Devils held a decided advantage in three-point shooting, going 8-16, while the Bengals hit on 3-16 long-range buckets.
Nigel Burch led the Bengals, now 0-7 and 0-1 in the SUNYAC, with 19 points and 13 rebounds. Matt Parkinson added 15 points.
The Devils (3-4/1-0 SUNYAC) completed a busy tree-game week. Next up is a road trip to Houghton on Thursday.
