Ranieri made all five of his shots from the floor and hit 10-of-12 free throws for the Red Dragons (14-8, 9-4). Jankiewicz was 5-of-6 from the floor, all from three-point range. He hit all four of his attempts in the first half and his first try in the second half.
Junior Simon Skrelja (Hastings-on-Hudson) finished with nine rebounds and four assists. Sophomore Dave Jutton (Red Hook) and junior Brian Kirchhoff (Webster) scored eight points apiece.
Buffalo State (9-12, 4-9) was led by junior Gregg Jones (Syracuse/Nottingham) and freshman Dion Mozelle (Rego Park/Xaverian), who each finished with 17 points, seven rebounds and three assists.
Cortland made 9-of-15 three-point attempts in the first half and led by as many as 23 points, 39-16, on Jankiewicz’s fourth trey with 1:05 left. The Red Dragons led 39-21 at halftime, but cooled off from behind the arc in the second half, however, hitting just 2-of-11 attempts.
After scoring the last five points of the half, Buffalo State opened the first 7:02 of the second half on a 14-4 run. Jones scored seven points during the run, which pulled the Bengals within eight points. The Bengals were as close as six points on a Jones jumper with 9:19 left, but Ranieri hit two free throws and Jankiewicz made a three-pointer to push the lead to 11.
The guests clawed back to within seven at 52-45 on a John Lawal (Hempstead/Uniondale) layup with 7:43 left. On Cortland’s ensuing possession, however, a technical foul was called on Buffalo State’s bench. Kirchhoff made both technical free throws and Ranieri made a layup on the same possession to restore Cortland’s 11-point lead.
Buffalo State got back to within seven one more time with 2:36 left but managed only one more field goal the rest of the way.
Buffalo State vs SUNY Cortland 2/11/05 8 p.m. at Cortland, NY (Corey Gym) SUNY CORTLAND 69, BUFFALO STATE 58 BUFFALO STATE (9-12, 4-9 SUNYAC) MOZELLE, Dion 7-14 3-4 17; JONES, Gregg 6-16 5-6 17; LAWAL, John 2-2 3-6 7; ALLPORT-COHOON, Jon 2-5 3-4 7; KONST, Justin 2-5 0-0 6; LANGLEY, Joe 1-2 2-4 4; FERRETTI, Sean 0-1 0-0 0; SANABRIA, Jake 0-2 0-0 0; KONST, Jeremy 0-4 0-0 0. Totals 20-51 16-24 58. SUNY CORTLAND (14-8, 9-4 SUNYAC) RANIERI, Frank 5-5 10-12 21; JANKIEWICZ, Michael 5-6 0-0 15; JUTTON, Dave 3-8 0-0 8; KIRCHHOFF, Brian 2-7 2-2 8; HEADLEY, Rod 2-5 3-4 7; SKRELJA, Simon 2-4 0-0 4; O'GARROW, Justin 1-5 1-6 4; MERRITT, Quentin 1-2 0-0 2; SCHALLER, Mark 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 21-44 16-24 69. Buffalo State................. 21 37 - 58 SUNY Cortland................. 39 30 - 69 3-point goals-Buffalo State 2-15 (KONST, Justin 2-5; JONES, Gregg 0-5; SANABRIA, Jake 0-2; KONST, Jeremy 0-3), SUNY Cortland 11-26 (JANKIEWICZ, Michael 5-6; JUTTON, Dave 2-7; KIRCHHOFF, Brian 2-7; RANIERI, Frank 1-1; O'GARROW, Justin 1-4; SCHALLER, Mark 0-1). Fouled out--Buffalo State-KONST, Jeremy, SUNY Cortland-None. Rebounds-Buffalo State 30 (JONES, Gregg 7; MOZELLE, Dion 7), SUNY Cortland 29 (SKRELJA, Simon 9). Assists-Buffalo State 12 (MOZELLE, Dion 3; JONES, Gregg 3), SUNY Cortland 14 (RANIERI, Frank 5). Total fouls-Buffalo State 16, SUNY Cortland 18. A-800