With aspirations very high this season, the Buffalo State men’s basketball team looked to start the season on a high note.

The Bengals sit at 3-0 to start the season after defeating Pitt-Bradford 90-69 in the season opener and winning the Coles Classic tournament. Buffalo faced Maine-Fort Kent and Villa Maria in the tourney.

“I mean, it’s a good start, but it’s nothing to get overly excited for,” senior guard Jordan Glover said.

Glover takes the wins with a grain of salt, knowing anything could happen in the latter half of the season. Last season, the Bengals got off to a strong start then began to struggle.

“We don’t want to have a repeat of last year,” senior guard Nico McLean said. “We started off 7-0 then went into a slump.”

Scoring has really been a strong suit for the Bengals. In three games to start the season, the Bengals have scored 90, 84 and 94 for an average of 89.3 points per game.

“I think we scored the ball really well the past three games,” Glover said. “That is something we have done the past three years well also.”

Senior guard Lovell Smith has led the way scoring for the Bengals with 22.7 points per game. His career-high 35 points came in the Coles Classic title game vs. Villa Maria and propelled the Bengals to victory, 94-83, on Saturday.

“We could not have won that game without him; he was the reason we stayed in the game and his MVP award was well-deserved,” McLean said. “When Lovell has got it going like that, it’s our job just to keep feeding the hot hand.”

The way Smith scored took a lot of pressure off the rest of the team and made it easier for everyone else.

“It opens the game up so much for us, especially as guards,” Glover said. “The more he scores, they start to double down and help more, and when that happens, we are open for the kickout pass for the open jump shots.”

Although the Bengals defense have been pretty solid, only allowing 73 points per game, improving on defense from here on has been a big emphasis.

“I think we have to work on our defense, we gave up too many points (83) this past Saturday after keeping our opponents under 70 points the first two games,” Glover said.

“We need to work on shooting free throws, shooting them with confidence and our defense of course,” Mclean said.

As a team, the Bengals sport a free throw percentage of 64 percent and a three-point percentage of 29 percent. They need to get in the gym and get those shots up.

With a team full of veterans, this 3-0 start isn’t blinding them at all. They know that this is just the beginning and that they have a lot of work to do if they want to reach their goal.

“It’s still early and we have a lot of work to do as a whole,” Glover said.

“Right now, we are playing good as a team, we need to continue that,” McLean said. “We also need to go in the locker room after every game, talk about our mistakes and figure out how we can fix them if we want to be successful.”

Buffalo State’s next game will be Tuesday, Nov. 29 at Alfred University. Their next home game will be Friday, Dec. 2 as they take on Plattsburg.

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