Niagara closes out a chilly weekend

By Budd Bailey

Looking for a little relief from this historic cold snap in Western New York? Don’t count on the area’s sports teams for a respite.

In particular, the area’s men’s college basketball teams were particularly unsuccessful in providing a diversion. Our Big Four of Canisius, Niagara, St. Bonaventure and the University at Buffalo played six home games from Friday to Sunday. They combined to go 0-6. Brrrrr.

There was bad news elsewhere, as you might know. The Sabres lost to the Canadiens at home, but anyone who complains about a Buffalo hockey loss after the team’s play in the past two months should be sentenced to watch the Sabres’ highlight video from 2020-21. (It’s only four minutes long, though.) Meanwhile, the Bandits were unexpectedly destroyed by Colorado, which raised some serious red flags about their chances of making it four titles in a row this spring. But they have earned the benefit of the doubt for the moment. At least the Bills and Bisons had the week off.

The gloomy sports weekend was concluded in Niagara’s Gallagher Center on Sunday afternoon, as the Purple Eagles dropped a 58-46 contest against visiting Marist. And if you want to talk about cold, let’s discuss Niagara’s shooting on Sunday afternoon. It was if the team played in an ice box for long stretches.

“A lot of credit goes to them defensively,” Niagara coach Greg Paulus said. “They’re a terrific defensive team, the best in the conference and one of the best in the country. They make you work for everything, and I thought their physicality was really on display today.”

The Eagles (5-17, 2-10 MAAC) fell behind quite quickly. They had all of one field goal in the first seven minutes and 40 seconds of play, and probably were a little lucky that the score was only 10-2 for the Red Foxes at that point. In the first 15 minutes of play, Niagara was a dismal 4 for 21 from the field in shooting. Marist led 27-14 in the final minute of the half and looked to be control.

“It took us too long to get in a rhythm offensively,” Paulus said. “We shot the ball well from three but you want to get shot attempts up.”

That made the Purple Eagles’ turnaround that much more surprising. They scored the last five points of the first half, and the first nine points of the second half. If you do the math, you should find that Niagara had a 28-27 lead at that point out of absolutely nowhere.

“We talked about making a run at the end of the half,” Paulus said. “We call it a silent run, where you try to finish the first half off by going on a mini-run, and then jump on the second half. We really made a run there. … We did a great job with that.”

The teams more or less traded baskets for the next six minutes, leaving Marist ahead by 38-37 – anyone’s game. Then came another Arctic Blast, as the Eagles only scored one field goal – a jam by Will Shortt – in nearly six minutes. The Red Foxes were up nine by then, and they took care of business the rest of the way.

For the record, Justin Hawkings had 14 points to lead Niagara, while Trenton Walters added 10. Rhyjon Blackwell scored 13 points to pace the Red Foxes. The worst statistic was in shooting percentage, as the Purple Eagles converted 29 percent of their field-goal attempts … and were 9 of 37 (24 percent) in two-pointers. Ouch.

Meanwhile back in Buffalo at more or less the same time, Canisius was losing to Siena, 78-63. Let’s sum up the damage here, shall we? Niagara has gone five games without a win and lost eight of nine. It’s seven straight losses for the Golden Griffins (8-15, 3-9 MAAC). UB has lost six of seven to drop to 14-8, 4-6 MAC. The Bonnies (13-9, 2-7 A-10) have lost seven of their last nine.

Want some good news? Either Canisius or Niagara is about to end its losing streak. The two teams play each other at the Gallagher Center on Tuesday night as a hectic stretch continues.

“We’ve had a few of them this year,” Paulus said of the crowded schedule. “This time of the year, especially with a rivalry game coming up on Tuesday, both teams are playing three games in five days.”

(Follow Budd on X.com via @WDX2BB)