BUFFALO, N.Y. –
Austin Grunder (Trumansburg/Charles O. Dickerson) scored 26 points and reached the career 1,000-point mark as Cortland defeated host Buffalo State, 73-66, in a SUNYAC men's basketball contest.
Cortland moved into a tie for sixth place with Geneseo in the SUNYAC standings with an 8-8 league mark and is now 12-11 overall. The Red Dragons will host Buffalo State Friday at 7:30 p.m. and Geneseo Saturday at 6 p.m. to close out the regular season, and the top six teams in the league standings will qualify for the conference tournament.
Grunder made 11-of-17 shots from the floor and finished the night with 13 rebounds, five assists and three blocks in addition to his 26 points. He is only the second player in Cortland men's basketball history to reach the career 1,000-point mark in just his second season. Grunder scored 527 points in 2019-20 and has 479 points this season for 1,006 total. Mike Stokes scored 1,037 points for the Red Dragons during his only two seasons with the program from 1983-85 (531 in 1983-84, 506 in 1984-85) after transferring from Nassau Community College.
Kareem Lubin (South Blooming Grove/Washingtonville) and
Danny Linehan (Blauvelt) each scored 12 points in the victory, with Lubin also adding five rebounds and four assists.
AJ Lawton (Saratoga Springs) scored nine points on three 3-pointers and distributed four assists, and
Humberto Cabrera (Millbrook) finished the evening with eight points, six rebounds and three assists.
DaRon Hughey scored 20 points, including 4-of-7 3-point shooting, and grabbed six rebounds, and Philbert Weeks rang up a double-double with 19 points and 13 rebounds for Buffalo State (5-18, 4-12 SUNYAC). Aaron Davis and Argjend Imeri each had five assists.
Cortland led 25-15 midway through the first half, but the Bengals eventually took a 32-29 lead on a Hughey 3-pointer with 2:07 remaining.
Riley McEvoy's (Homer) 3-pointer at the 1:38 mark sent the teams into the halftime locker room tied 32-32. The Red Dragons trailed 37-32 early in the second and were down 45-42 with 14:12 left before going on a 9-0 run to take the lead for good at 51-45 with 12:17 remaining. The run featured buckets by Linehan, Lubin and Grunder along with a Lawton 3-pointer. Cortland led 57-47 at the 10:42 mark after a Lubin 3-point play.
Grunder scored his 1,000th point on a layup with 6:29 remaining, and he hit another layup about 30 seconds later to give the Red Dragons a 65-54 lead. The closest the Bengals got after that was 71-66 with eight seconds left in the game, and Grunder sank two free throws to finish the scoring.
Cortland shot 50 percent from the floor for the game, including 53 percent in the second half, and the Red Dragons were 6-for-16 (38 percent) from the arc. Buffalo State ended the game shooting 43 percent overall but only 5-of-23 (22 percent) from 3-point range.
