POUGHKEEPSIE, New York – The Marist men's basketball team earned a 71-70 victory over Canisius on Saturday night in a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference game at McCann Arena.

The Red Foxes came back from a 10-point deficit with 16 minutes to play as they won their second straight.
 

Summary

• Neither team led by more than three points in a back-and-forth first half. A jumper by Malek Green beat the buzzer to give the Golden Griffins a 32-29 halftime lead.
• Canisius' Scott Hitchon scored the first five points of the second half. His three-pointer with 18:24 to play put the Golden Griffins up 37-29 and forced a Marist timeout.
• Armon Harried's basket with 16:07 to play gave Canisius the game's largest lead at 41-31.
• Jao Ituka's basket tied the score at 53 with 8:22 to play, and Ricardo Wright's jumper on the ensuing possession gave Marist its first second-half lead at 55-53 with 7:59 remaining. Hitchon drained a three on the Golden Griffins' next possession, but then Samkelo Cele's three on the following trip down the floor gave the Red Foxes the lead for good.
• Marist led by as much as six on two occasions, the last coming on an Ituka layup with 4:17 remaining.
• Canisius scored the game's final four points, and had the ball with a chance to win on the game's final possession, but the Red Foxes got a stop to end the game.

 

Stats

• Ituka led all scorers with 22 points. He shot 9-for-14 from the field and also contributed six rebounds (team high) and three assists (tied team high).
• Joining Ituka in double figures in scoring were Noah Harris (14 points, 5-for-7 from the field, 4-for-5 on three-pointers) and Wright (13 points, five rebounds, three assists).
• Jordan Henderson led Canisius with 19 points.
• Marist shot 8-for-20 from three-point range. The Red Foxes were 2-for-9 in the first half and 6-for-11 in the second 20 minutes.

 

Notes

• Ituka now has six games with at least 20 points this season.
• Marist has now won five games in head coach John Dunne's tenure in which they have erased a deficit of at least 10 points.
• Harris is 20-for-39 (.513) from three-point range in his last six games
• This was Marist's first win this season when trailing at halftime.

 

Records

• Canisius is 8-17 overall and 4-10 in the MAAC.
• Marist is 10-13 this season and 5-9 in conference play.

 

Up Next

• Marist will host Niagara on Monday, Feb. 14 at 7 p.m.
• Tickets are available at MaristTickets.com.
• The game will be broadcast on ESPN3, with Dean Darling (play-by-play) and Steve Eggink (analyst) on the call.