Niagara fritters away 15-point lead in season-ending loss to Marist
Mar. 14—A 15-point second-half lead turned into a nightmare for Niagara.
Kwane Marble Jr. scored on the opening possession of the second half to go up 39-24 and then the lead frittered away. Five days after overcoming a nine-point halftime hole, third-seeded Marist rallied past No. 6 Niagara again, this time erasing a 12-point halftime deficit to win 65-59 in the MAAC quarterfinals in Atlantic City.
After beating the top-two teams in the conference — Fairfield and Quinnipiac — on the road, Niagara ended the season by losing five of its last seven games. It comes a year after losing six of the last eight games of the year.
"You're so in the moment of trying to do something special and you're exerting your energy into the program and the growth of it and being able to try to do something special that hasn't been done in a while," Niagara coach Greg Paulus said. " ... Unfortunately we did fall short today. ... You lay it on the line and then you can have no regrets and our group played that way."
Niagara (16-16) opened the game with an 18-6 lead, but Marist rebounded by cutting the lead to five, only for the Purple Eagles to answer with a 10-1 run on 3-pointers from Luke Bumbalough and Dre Bullock.
Harlan Obioha and Yaw Obeng-Mensah scored 15 of their 22 points in the first half, as Niagara battered the Red Foxes in the paint 20-10 and had a 14-3 edge in points off turnovers. The Purple Eagles shot 53.8% in the first 20 minutes, while committing just five turnovers.
"We just talked at halftime about inching our way back in, not playing hero ball, sharing it a little bit more in the second half," Marist coach John Dunne said. "And we thought if we could get some buckets and get a few stops then fatigue would probably kick in for them since they played two nights ago and they've been on a road for a while and I thought they got a little bit fatigued."
After Marble's and-one, Niagara began to wither away, playing for the fourth time in seven days and had not been home during that time. Marist (18-12) rattled off a 13-2 run to cut the lead to four, and after Niagara scored five quick points, came back with a 14-3 run to take its first lead of the game.
There was a stretch in which the Purple Eagles went 3 minutes, 45 seconds without scoring and nearly eight minutes without a field goal.
"We had four or five turnovers in the first five minutes of the second half and they got us in some foul trouble," Paulus said. "They attacked the rim and put us in some spots. I just thought they continued to keep putting pressure on and making us respond."
The Purple Eagles committed 11 turnovers in the second half and made just eight field goals. The Red Foxes clamped down in the post and had a 20-5 advantage in points off turnovers and 18-12 in the paint. As Niagara started to press with hurried shots, Marist guard Jadin Collins scored 14 of his career-high 20 points in the second half on 7 of 7 shooting, as the team shot 59.1% in the final 20 minutes.
"They played harder than us," Obeng-Mensah said. "They came out in the second half with an edge and just they didn't stop playing at all. They just played harder and made a lot of things difficult for us."
Marble led Niagara with 15 points, while Obeng-Mensah had 13 points and seven rebounds.
Javon Cooley had 14 points and five rebounds, while Jackson Price had 12 points and four rebounds for the Red Foxes, who advance to face No. 2 Fairfield at 9 p.m. Friday in the semifinals.
