BUFFALO — Visiting Saint Peter’s jumped out to an early 11-0 lead and never looked back, as the Peacocks closed out the 2016-17 regular-season with a 72-65 win over Canisius Sunday afternoon on Sports Hall of Fame Day in the Koessler Athletic Center. The win is Saint Peter’s sixth straight, and moved the team to 18-12 overall and 14-6 in MAAC play. Canisius, which has now dropped three straight, fell to 17-14 overall and 10-10 in league play with the loss.
The loss, coupled with Fairfield’s win at Niagara and Rider’s win at Quinnipiac, puts Canisius in the seventh-seed at next week’s MAAC Men’s Basketball Championship in Albany, New York. Canisius will play Thursday night at 7 p.m., against the 10th-seeded Marist Red Foxes. The game will be broadcast live on ESPN3.
Saint Peter’s came out of the gates red-hot, scoring on four of its first five shots in the game’s first 4:06 to take a 10-0 lead. A free-throw by Quadir Welton made the score 11-0 in favor of the Peacocks before Canisius finally got on the scoreboard at the 15:45 mark of the first stanza on a made free-throw by freshman Dantai St. Louis. After the team’s traded empty possessions, Canisius hit its first field goal 5:51 into the game when sophomore Chris Atkinson drained a 3-pointer from the corner to make the score 11-4 in favor of Saint Peter’s. The Peacocks’ lead hovered around nine points for the better part of the first half before Canisius closed the opening 20 minutes on an 8-3 run to make the score 37-33 in favor of Saint Peter’s at the break.
In the second half, Canisius trailed 59-52 with 5:12 left to play, but a 6-0 run by Canisius over the game’s next 1:30, capped by a lay-up from freshman Isaiah Reese, got the Griffs within one point at 59-58. Following a pair of missed free-throws by Welton, Canisius had a chance to take the lead for the first time on the day on its ensuing possession, but the Blue and Gold came up empty with a miss, and Saint Peter’s sophomore Antwon Portley trilled a 3-pointer from the far corner with 1:58 left on the clock to push the Peacocks’ cushion back to four points at 62-58. Junior Kassius Robertson was able to get the Griffs within three at 66-63 with 34 seconds left to play after he made a pair from the free-throw line, but the Peacocks were able to seal the victory by draining four free-throws in a seven second span to close out the game.
Five Saint Peter’s players scored in double-figures in the win, with Trevis Wyche and Nnamdi Enechionyia each scoring 12 points. The Peacocks shot 52 percent from the field and ended the game by turning 12 Canisius turnovers into 22 points.
For the Griffs, junior Jermaine Crumpton scored 14 points, while senior Phil Valenti added 11 points and a game-high eight rebounds. Douse was good for nine points and seven boards for the Blue and Gold, which shot 39.6 percent from the field, 33.3 percent from 3-point land and 73.7 percent from the free-throw line. Reese also had nine points for the Griffs, and he also added four rebounds and a career-high five steals in 27 minutes off the bench.
Canisius will travel to Albany, New York to meet No. 10 seed Marist in the first round of the 2017 MAAC Men’s Basketball Championship. That game will be played Thursday, March 2, at 7 p.m., in Times Union Center. The game will be broadcast live on ESPN3, and the audio call will be available on TIMELESS WECK 1230-AM and 102.9-FM in Buffalo and through GoGriffs.com.
from GoGriffs.com via IFTTT