Men’s Basketball Eliminated From NCAA Tournament With 96-72 Loss To Buffalo State

The Johnson & Wales University men's basketball team was eliminated from the NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Championship with a 96-72 setback against Buffalo State at the Bill Bradley Sports and Recreation Center on the campus of Ramapo College in the second round of the tournament on Saturday evening.

Johnson & Wales was led by junior Lamonte Thomas (Providence, R.I.) with 28 points and four assists while senior Louis Ferreras (Providence, R.I.) added 14 points and six boards for JWU.  Sophomore Matt Williams (Mt. Kisco, N.Y.) added nine points in the setback for the Wildcats.

Buffalo State sophomore Jake Simmons (Rochester, N.Y.) paced his team with 28 points and four rebounds while sophomore Justin Mitchell (Buffalo, N.Y.) had 14 points for the Bengals.  Senior Glenroy Carr (New York, N.Y.) added a double-double with 13 points and 16 boards in the victory.

Buffalo State controlled the action early and held the 16-9 lead after a jumper by Carr with 9:34 left in the first half.  The Bengals took their largest lead of the first half when a three-pointer by Simmons put the squad up 29-17 with just under four minutes left in the first half.  Buffalo State took the 40-27 lead heading into the locker room at halftime.  Johnson & Wales was out rebounded by a 31-13 margin in the first half and shot just 33.3% from the field.

The Bengals extended their lead to 52-32 on a layup by Simmons with 16:22 remaining in the contest.  Johnson & Wales rallied, however and cut the lead to 61-51 on a layup by junior Calvin Jones (Providence, R.I.) with 11:26 left in the stanza.  The Bengals largest lead of the second half came on a three-pointer by Simmons to put the team up 86-60 with 4:19 remaining.  Buffalo State would then cruise to the victory.

With the loss Johnson & Wales wraps up the 2010-11 campaign with a 21-9 overall record while Buffalo State improves to 23-6 for the season.  Buffalo State will return to action on Friday, March 11th when they take on St. Mary's (MD) in the round of 16 at the national tournament.