Niagara's late burst beats Canisius

By Budd Bailey

With 7:39 left to play, it seemed that Canisius had all of the momentum on its side in its rivalry basketball game with Niagara at the Koessler Athletic Center. After a slow start, the Golden Griffins slowly climbed back into the game, and ripped off seven straight points to take a 50-45 lead.

After all, as that noted basketball fan Isaac Newton once said (more or less), things going in motion tend to stay in motion.

Instead, it was the Purple Eagles that took charge at the proper moment. Niagara ran off 10 straight points to take a 55-50 lead with a minute to go. The Eagles sank some free throws to pull out the 59-54 victory.

Another one of Newton’s laws was on display after the game: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. That sort of summed up how the two coaches reacted to the outcome.

“I’m really proud of our group for finding a way to win in a different way today,” Niagara coach Greg Paulus said. “It wasn’t the prettiest of second halves. Both teams were defensive-minded, and it was back and forth. I loved our fight and togetherness. … Fortunately we made one more play.”

“We stopped competing,” Canisius coach Jim Christian said. “With two on the shot clock, we didn’t chase the shooter. The next time down we let a guy tee up to shoot a three. We fouled a guy with 33 seconds to go at half-court. We had some wide-open shots for a three and from the top of the key, and didn’t make either one of them. Undisciplined at one end, couldn’t make a play at the other end – that’s a recipe for losing. That’s what happened.”

The Griffins sort of picked up where they left off on Sunday, when a three-game winning streak came to a decisive ending at the hands of Iona (74-48). The Eagles mixed some strong work around the basket with a pair of three-pointers, and Justin Page was dynamic as he was on his way to scoring 15 points in the half. (He finished with a game-high 19.)

Canisius reduced the margin to six points at the half, but there was no celebrating. Shooting less than 30 percent from the field over the first 20 minutes will do that.

“We weren’t guarding the ball, and they shot 55 percent in the first half,” Christian said. “We knew they’d try to take us one-on-one, and they did. We just weren’t good enough tonight – the whole night. We never got into a good rhythm.”

But the Golden Griffins came out with some intensity to start the second half, and it helped. Kahlil Singleton, the team’s leading scorer, was more aggressive once play began. He put in eight quick points to make it a game again; he finished with 11, a bit below his average.

“I have to work a little harder to get touches,” Singleton said. “I worked hard in the second half with some ghost screens. But we have to make plays when they are focused on me. The more they focus on me, the more the middle of the court is open. You’ve got to capitalize on that.”

“He’s a great player, great shooter,” Page said. “We knew we had to lock in and take some of his shots away. We had to fight through some screens.”

Once that happened, we had a back-and-forth game that seemed worthy of the schools’ rivalry. This was the 196^th time that Niagara and Canisius had played basketball, and some students from both schools provided a nice bit of atmosphere with some welcome enthusiasm.

But the Purple Eagles took the air out of the building with that late 10-0 run. It led to a win that was quite needed, since Niagara came into the game at 4-12, 1-5 in the conference and on a three-game losing streak.

“We have so many new guys – 11 new guys who put on a Niagara uniform and stepped on the court,” Paulus said. “We want to learn through each experience – a win or a loss, whatever. I think that’s something that we’re trying to install, and build some habits. It’s hard to win, but it’s a byproduct of what we’re doing each and every day. Today we took a step forward for that.”

The Purple Eagles have a date with Mount St. Mary’s on Monday afternoon at home, and will try to build on this win. Canisius (8-10, 3-4) plays the Mountaineers on Saturday in the KAC at noon.

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