OSWEGO, N.Y. -- The Oswego State men's basketball team foiled a late charge by the Bengals to down Buffalo State 75-71 on Saturday afternoon. With the win the Lakers improved to 14-6 overall and surged above .500 in the conference to 7-6. The Bengals fell to 12-9 and 6-8 in the SUNYAC.

Leading by nine with just under three minutes remaining on the game clock, Oswego saw Buffalo State make a furious charge. The Bengals were able to cut the Laker lead to three with 44 seconds left.

On the following offensive possession, the Lakers were able to pull down a crucial offensive board forcing the Bengals to foul. At the line Kyle Covley sank one of two shots to effectively put the game out of reach.

Covley started out the contest on fire knocking down back-to-back 3-pointers on a run in which he scored 11-straight points. The Fairport, N.Y. native went 4-for-7 (57%) in the first half from deep and added one more in the second half to score 22 points in the contest.

Oswego scored 22 points in the paint over the course of the game with 10 of them coming off the hands of Mark Candelario. The senior also grabbed 11 rebounds to notch his first double-double of the season.

Alex Rawa added 11 points to the cause and pulled down eight boards.

Brian Sortino had yet another quality night as he scored 23 points with 10 of those coming from the charity stripe. The junior also dished out a season-high seven dimes and pulled down three boards.

Oswego will return to action on Tuesday as it heads to New Paltz for a conference matchup against the Hawks beginning at 7:30 p.m.