Dec. 22, 2007
Final Stats
NIAGARA UNIVERSITY, N.Y. - The Marist men's basketball team suffered its second straight loss on Saturday, a 76-67 defeat at Niagara in a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference contest. Red-shirt senior Ryan Stilphen (Bay Village, Ohio) had his second double-double of the season, finishing with 12 points and 11 rebounds. Senior Ben Farmer (Clinton, Conn.) led the Red Foxes with 13 points.
With 4:15 remaining in the first half, a basket by Niagara's Charron Fisher gave the Purple Eagles their largest lead of the game to that point, a 29-20 advantage. From there, the Red Foxes closed the first half on a 15-0 run to take a 35-29 lead into the intermission.
A tip-in by Stilphen with 16:51 remaining gave Marist its largest lead of the contest, a 43-31. The Red Foxes still had a 10-point advantage at 50-40 with 13:02 left, but Marist scored just two points over the next 7:40. A three-pointer by Fisher gave Niagara a 55-52 lead with 5:39 remaining, and the Purple Eagles led for the rest of the contest, and the Red Foxes never cut the margin under three after that. Niagara sealed the game at the free-throw line, going 12-for-14 at the line in the final 1:10.
Marist finished with four scorers in double digits. In addition to Stilphen and Farmer, red-shirt senior Louie McCroskey (Bronx, N.Y.) and red-shirt sophomore David Devezin (Houston, Texas) scored 11 apiece. Senior Spongy Benjamin (St. Francis Village Erin, Trinidad) grabbed a team-high 12 rebounds, but did not score.
Fisher led all scorers with 27, with 20 of them coming in the second half. He also had 12 rebounds, three blocks and two steals while playing all 40 minutes. Fisher, who entered the game among the nation's leading scorers at 27.4 points per game, shot 7-for-18 from the field, 2-for-5 from three-point range and 11-for-14 from the free-throw line. Niagara also received 20 points and six rebounds from Stanley Hodge, and an 11-point, seven-rebound, five-assist effort from Anthony Nelson.
Marist shot .381 from the field, going 11-for-34 (.324) in the second half after shooting 13-for-29 (.448) in the first half. Niagara held a 45-43 rebounding edge, marking just the second time this season that the Red Foxes have been outrebounded in a game.
Marist fell to 6-5 overall and 1-1 in the MAAC. Niagara improved to 6-3 overall and 2-0 in the MAAC.
The Red Foxes will return to action at the Aeropostale Holiday Festival at Madison Square Garden. In first-round action on Friday, Marist will play host St. John's at 8:30 p.m. The Red Foxes will face either Hofstra or Virginia Tech on Saturday.
