Jan. 8, 2003
Box Score
Poughkeepsie, NY - The Marist College men's basketball team lost its third straight game this evening, dropping a 76-68 decision to Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) foe, Niagara. The Red Foxes are now 5-8 overall and are 1-3 in MAAC play, while the Purple Eagles improve to 6-6 overall and 2-1 in conference play.
The Purple Eagles took a 36-33 lead into the intermission, and opened the second half on a 11-4 run to take a 47-40 lead with 17:04 remaining. The lead remained at seven or more points until a free throw from Carl Hood (Houston, TX) to cut the deficit to 55-49 with 11:25 remaining. Niagara expanded the lead to 10 points with 9:03 left, 61-51, before a 9-2 Marist run got the Red Foxes to within three points, 63-60 with 6:22 left. Alvin Cruz drilled a three-poitner22 second later to spark an 11-0 Niagara run to put the game out of reach. The Red Foxes closed within five points with 2:29 left (71-66), but would get no closer.
David Bennett (Salt Lake City, UT) and Nick Eppehimer (Pottstown, PA) led the way for Marist, both scoring 12 points. Bennett added a career-high seven assists, as well as two boards and two steals. Hood had a career-night, just missing a double-double, with nine points and a game-high 11 rebounds. Eric Siegrist (Poughkeepsie, NY) scored 10 points for the Red Foxes on 4-7 shooting.
Tremmell Darden scored 24 points to lead the Purple Eagles, while James Reaves added 21 points and nine boards. Juan Mendez had a double-double for Niagara, scoring 11 points and pulling in 10 boards. Cruz added 13 points and a game-high eight assists.
The Red Foxes out rebounded the visitors, 38-37 and had a positive assist-to-turnover ratio for the second straight game, with 17 assists and 10 turnovers. Niagara, which shot 50 percent (28-56) for the game, had 20 assists as compared to 12 turnovers. Marist shot 41.5 percent (27-65) from the field, but were good only 3-26 times from downtown, 11.5 percent.
Marist returns to action on Friday, January 10th, when it hosts Canisius in a MAAC game at the McCann Center. That game is set to tip-off at 7:30 pm
