The Canisius Golden Griffins will host Ryerson in an exhibition game at 6 p.m. Monday inside the Koessler Athletic Center.
This will be the Golden Griffins’ lone exhibition game before the start of the 2016-17 season and marks the fourth time the Griffs and Rams have played in the exhibition season, with Canisius winning the previous three contests. In its last 12 exhibition games, Canisius is 10-2, including wins over Ryerson and Buffalo State last year. This will be the first opportunity for the public to see the Griffs under the direction of new head coach Reggie Witherspoon, who was named the 24th coach in program history May 28.
Canisius returns two starters and six letterwinners from last year’s team that went 14-19. Senior Phil Valenti was named to the Preseason All-MAAC Third-Team a few weeks ago by the conference’s 11 head coaches. Valenti has been a preseason all-third team choice in each of the last two years. Valenti is the team’s top returning scorer and rebounder after he finished his junior campaign with 14.6 points and 6.1 boards per contest. In all, the Blue and Gold return 58 percent of its scoring offense and 53.5 percent of its rebounding from 2015-16. Junior Kassius Robertson ranked third on the team last year in scoring average with his 14.1 points per game. One of the MAAC’s top 3-point shooting threats, the Toronto native knocked down 86 3-pointers last year, the third most for a Canisius player in program history.
Canisius will officially open the 113th season in program history Nov. 13 when the Golden Griffins play at No. 2/4 Kentucky in Rupp Arena. That game will be broadcast on ESPN2. The game at Kentucky will be Canisius’ fifth game all-time against the nation’s No. 2 team in the Associated Press poll. Canisius is 1-3 in the previous four games against the nation’s second-best team. The meeting with the Wildcats will be the third in school history, and the first since Dec. 10, 1997. Kentucky has won the two previous contests.
from GoGriffs.com via IFTTT
