Niagara erases 16-point second half deficit, claws past Canisius

LEWISTON, N.Y. (WIVB) — Niagara men’s basketball erased a 16-point second half deficit to come back and beat Canisius at the Gallagher Center on Tuesday night, 69-64.

It was an unlikely win. The Purple Eagles trailed by as many as 16 in the first minute of the second half before making the comeback, highlighted by a 13-0 run that tied the game at 45 with just under 13 and a half minutes remaining. The run lasted just over three minutes.

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The teams went back and forth for the rest of the second half, neither side leading by more than four until less than a second to go. Niagara opened it up to a two-possession game for the first time on a three from Dre Bullock with 5:40 remaining.

Canisius did have a chance to tie it up in the game’s final possession, but a Tre Dinkins three went wayward just before the buzzer sounded. Free throws from Niagara’s Ahmad Henderson with less than a second to go sealed the game for good.

“I just talked about winning four-minute segments. I said that there’s no 14-point play, we just want to cut it from 14 to 12, 12 to 10 and slowly get ourselves back into it. We kind of did that to start, and then the run hit,” Niagara coach Greg Paulus said. “So it was just a matter of trying to settle us down.”

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It wasn’t always that close. The first handful of minutes of the game was back-and-forth before an extended 18-4 run from Canisius gave it a nine-point lead, a lead that ballooned to 14 by halftime.

Niagara got the deficit to single digits for the first time with 15:19 to play on a dunk from Yaw Obeng-Mensah, who finished the game with 11 points and nine rebounds. Harlan Obioha had 16 points to lead the Purple Eagles, while Henderson finished with 13.

“As a team, we always say ‘next play mentality.’ Coach tells us that all the time, so we keep that in our minds every game we go,” Obeng-Mensah said.

Canisius was led by Frank Mitchell’s 16-point effort. The only other Golden Griffin in double figures was Bryce Okpoh, who had 13.

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Niagara improves to 12-10 on the season and 8-4 in MAAC play, matching its best 12-game league record since the 2017-18 season. The last time the program had a better 12-game start was the 2012-13 season, when it went 10-2 in the first 12 games.

“For us, we got to continue to learn how to prepare, learn how to play with different styles and versus different styles and win in different ways. When you play teams a second time around, they’re going to make adjustments,” Paulus said. “As we continue to evolve as a team, we got to continue to work hard.”

Canisius, which only had seven scholarship players available due to various injuries, fell to 8-14 on the year and 3-9 in league play.

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Aidan Joly joined the News 4 staff in 2022. He is a graduate of Canisius College. You can see more of his work here.

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