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Sacred Heart outscores Canisius

Budd Bailey

By Budd Bailey


It was snowing outside the Koessler Athletic Center on Thursday night, and it was raining inside of it.


Raining threes, that is.


Sacred Heart University had a bunch of them during the course of its 93-84 win over Canisius University on Thursday night – 15 in fact. That’s one short of the building record by an opposing team. It’s a performance that probably meant Golden Griffins coach Jim Christian was counting threes instead of sheep when he tried to sleep after the game.


“Our defense started off poorly, and let them get into a real good rhythm,” he said. “Offensively they are a really good shooting basketball team.”


The Pioneers were making their first-ever appearance at the Koessler Center, as they are new members of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. Mehki Conner found the place to his liking, as he set a building record for an opponent with 16 assists. You’d have to say he distributed the ball equally, too. Sacred Heart had six players in double figures led by Tanner Thomas with 18 and Amiri Stewart with 16.


“If you’re not going to guard them, they’re going to make shots,” Christian said.


Even so, Canisius gave a good effort in a rematch of the teams who played in Fairfield, Conn. earlier this month. That one was won by Sacred Heart, 99-82. This was much closer.


Sacred Heart set the tone with a trio of three-pointers within the first four minutes of play and eight in the first 10 minutes. Once the Pioneers took the lead, the game became a series of ebbs and flows for the rest of the first half. The Griffs would get close, and Sacred Heart would pull away again. The Pioneers did a good job of guarding Canisius leading scorer Paul McMillan IV, holding him to six points, but the Griffins still put up 41 points in the first 20 minutes. The problem was that Sacred Heart had 49.


The pattern continued into the second half, but Sacred Heart seemed comfortable with a 72-63 lead with 8:41 left. But Canisius went on a nice 14-5 burst to tie the game with 5:16 left. The problem with that sort of effort, particularly for a team that doesn’t have a great deal of depth, is that a team can exhale after catching up. That’s about what happened.


Still, the last turning point came with 2:26 left and the Griffins down by four. McMillian missed two free throws, and Thomas immediately hit a three-pointer. What looked like it could have been a two-point game turned into a seven-point margin in favor of SHU almost in a blink. Canisius had no answer.


“When we needed to get a big stop, we couldn’t get it,” Christian said. “I give them credit for that, but that’s got to be on us too.”


Thus the Golden Griffins failed in their second try at having an actual winning streak, falling to 2-17 on the season. The two wins had come in the past four games, which represents some positive reinforcement in a season which went more than two months without any. The goal is to keep the heads high and the bodies working hard.


“I don’t think it’s difficult,” Christian said about the season. “We’re learning. It’s not something that’s going to happen every day. We’re improving in certain areas, and in certain areas we need to improve much more. We’ve got to get some depth. We have no depth, and we just wear out. That can only be done over time. It doesn’t happen overnight.”


McMillan’s big second half gave him 23 points Sfor the game, while Tana Kopa added 21 and Cam Paleese added 15. Rebounding was a problem, as the Pioneers had a 40-25 edge on the glass.


Canisius continues a three-game homestand on Saturday afternoon against Marist. On January 31, Niagara comes to the Koessler Center for another renewal of the rivalry.


(Follow Budd on X.com via @WDX2BB)   



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