BUFFALO — In the 157th all-time meeting, the Niagara Purple Eagles fell in a tightly contested meeting with the St. Bonaventure Bonnies, 79-69, in the Big 4 Classic on Saturday at the KeyBank Center.
Niagara faced an early 8-2 deficit seven minutes into the game. After starting the game going 1-for-6 from the field, the Purple Eagles made four straight shots to tie the game at 10-10. From there, the half was filled with runs.
St. Bonaventure went on a 16-3 run to build a 32-17 lead with 5:55 left in the half. However, the Purple Eagles soared back into the game with a furious run to close the half. Chris Barton drained a 3-pointer to start a 7-0 run for the Purple Eagles and James Towns nailed a buzzer-beating triple to cap a 14-2 run as Niagara went into halftime down 34-31.
NU trailed 47-45 with 13:59 remaining when St. Bonaventure’s Jaylen Adams went on an 11-0 run in a two-minute span to swing the momentum in favor of the Bonnies. Shane Gatling halted the run with five straight points but the Bonnies pushed their lead back into double digits as they maintained a double-digit lead until the 4:15 mark. Despite Dukes scoring 10 straight points from the 5:56 to 3-minute mark, the closes the Purple Eagles would get for the rest of the game was eight points.
Niagara heads back on the road for its final game of 2016 against LIU Brooklyn on Wednesday, Dec. 21 at 7:30 p.m. from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. The game will air on WGR 550 AM and on the Niagara Sports Network via PurpleEagles.com
from PurpleEagles.com via IFTTT
