CORTLAND, N.Y. – Freshman Ron Evans (New Hartford) and junior Juan Miolan (Troy) came off the bench to score 20 and 13 points, respectively, as Cortland edged Buffalo State, 77-73, in a SUNYAC contest. The Red Dragons improve to 6-2 overall and 2-0 in league play.

Cortland's bench outscored Buffalo State's by a 43-4 margin. Evans finished with 20 points, four rebounds and three assists and Miolan recorded 13 points, seven rebounds, three assists and three steals. Freshman center Chris Milke (Macedon/Palmyra-Macedon) scored seven points, grabbed five rebounds, handed out a team-high four assists and blocked two shots and senior Mark Schaller (Rochester/Greece Athena) finished with three point and three assists.

Sophomore Paul Oliver (Phoenix/John C. Birdlebough) was Cortland's lone starter scoring in double figures with 11 points. He also finished with six rebounds. Junior Carson Niehoff (West Islip) added eight points and six rebounds. All nine Red Dragons who appeared in the game played between 15 and 26 minutes.

Senior Dion Mozelle (Rego Park/Xaverian) led Buffalo State (2-2, 1-1) with a game-high 27 points along with eight rebounds and three blocked shots. Junior Jamar Gray (Rochester/Bishop Kearney) scored 19 points and made four steals, sophomore Antonio Samedi (St. Albans/Queens Vocational) registered nine points and game-highs of 11 rebounds and five blocked shots and junior James Tyndal (Bronx/Msgr. Scanlon) finished with nine points and six assists.

Buffalo State led by 10 points eight minutes into the game, but Cortland fought back and, behind 11 points from Evans, led 40-35 at halftime. The lead briefly extended to 42-35 before the Bengals went on a 15-0 run, including seven points by Mozelle, and led 50-42 with 13:58 remaining.

Cortland responded with a 15-1 run of its own, however, over the next four minutes to take a 57-51 lead. Evans, Miolan and Schaller each hit three-pointers during that stretch and Oliver's back-to-back layups capped the run.

Cortland never trailed again, but the Bengals kept things interesting right to the end. The Red Dragons opened their lead to 71-62 on a Milke tip-in with 2:27 left, but two free throws each by Tyndal and Mozelle cut the margin to five with 1:40 remaining. Niehoff scored on a breakaway a few seconds later, but a Tyndal free throw and a Mozelle jumper after a Buffalo State offensive rebound of Tyndal's missed second foul shot brought the Bengals within four with 1:20 left.

The Red Dragons turned the ball over with less than a minute left, but Mozelle missed a shot with 37 seconds left. Evans sank two free throws with 30 seconds on the clock and, following a  Mozelle layup, made a layup off a long lead pass from Milke with six seconds left to seal the victory.