Niagara springs past Canisius

By Budd Bailey

You can’t tell by the weather. Winter seems to be frozen in place, with little change as the days go by.

Therefore, there must be some other indicator in Western New York that spring is edging slowly closer to its arrival.

That’s the job of our local college basketball teams. When they are done playing, the temperature might top off above 40 once in a while. In the meantime, we and they trudge forward toward early March.

At the moment, it seems that Niagara has higher hopes about what might happen in the concluding few weeks of the season than its ancient rival. The Purple Eagles won their third game in four tries on Wednesday night, a 71-60 victory over Canisius.

The goal for both teams is to reach the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference tournament, which runs from March 11 to 15. Niagara and Canisius will have to be in the top 10 when they reach the regular season finish line. The Eagles moved into a three-way tie for ninth with the win on Wednesday, so there’s some hope there. They just have to keep it up.

“For us, we just want to keep getting better,” coach Greg Paulus said. “This past weekend, we played better. In this one, we grew a little bit in some areas. Listen, we’re not a finished product. We have a long way to go. … Our preparation – we want to keep on building that.”

Meanwhile, Canisius fell into the basement of the MAAC standings at 2-11. The mathematics are becoming more daunting by the loss. The fact that the Golden Griffins are very banged up at the moment – they essentially stuck to six players on Wednesday night – doesn’t help.  

“I think honestly, everyone wants to win,” Cam Palesse of Canisius said. “Especially a game like this – it was very close. Obviously we have to be better. I think there are ways we can be better. I think everyone on the team knows we are going out there trying to win and trying to be better than we were last time.”

“We still want to go to the conference tournament, no matter what the odds say,” teammate Gianni Thompson said.

The latest renewal of the rivalry was a bit odd. Niagara took the lead after a little more than three minutes of play, and never gave it up for the remaining 37 or so minutes. But the margin resembled an accordion for most of that time. It mostly fluctuated between two and nine points throughout the remainder of the game. Canisius never gave up, but simply didn’t have the horsepower to pull into true contention.

“We rebounded the ball pretty well,” Christian said. “We didn’t shoot threes well in the second half. A lot of that is fatigue and depth. If you want to win, those are the things you have to do. You have to be a little more opportunistic.”

The Purple Eagles were led by Josiah Davis, a guard who had an unexpected scoring explosion with 24 points on 8 for 12 shooting from the field and 8 for 9 from the line. That’s pretty good for someone was averaging 7.4 points per game. Davis did match his college career high for points, set last year when he played for Tennessee Tech. He missed six weeks of the season back in November/December, but looked quite comfortable on Wednesday.

“It’s a matter of having a group of guys that believe in me,” he said. “With the injury earlier in the season and getting back into the flow of things, they remind me every single day of who I am, and what I do. … It makes it easier to find my game.”

Meanwhile, Jhaylon Martinez, the 6-foot-11 center from California, had a night to remember. He didn’t miss a shot, sinking all six of his field-goal attempts including a three-pointer for 13 points in 18 minutes. Martinez laughed at a suggestion that he should have been calling for the ball more since he was so hot.

“My teammates did a good job of finding me when I was open,” Martinez said. “No, I wasn’t saying, give me the ball. I think we all played a good game. I think we were doing the gameplan and trying to get the win.”

For Canisius, Paul McMillan IV usually serves as the engine for the offense, since he’s the leading scorer in the conference. Niagara did an excellent job on him in the first half, holding him to only four points.

“We tried to make him work for it,” Paulus said about defending the talented guard.

McMillan was the only Griffin to score in the final five minutes, putting up six points on his way to finishing with 16. That was one behind teammate Thompson, while Palesse added 11 points with 10 rebounds.

A couple of statistics jumped off the scoresheet. Niagara was 19 for 29 in two-point field goal attempts, but 3 for 22 from three-point land. But the Purple Eagles did outscore Canisius, 42-32, in the paint, and by 13-0 off turnovers.

“In simplest terms, they were able to take us to the basket,” Christian said. “They took us in matchup one-on-one situations to score at the rim, and we’re not physical enough to do that on a consistent basis.”

Niagara will spend Valentine’s Day taking on Mount St. Mary’s at home as it attempts to continue on this mini-roll. The Mountaineers will move on to play Canisius Sunday afternoon.

Weather permitting, of course.

(Follow Budd on X.com via @WDX2BB)