Niagara women position themselves ahead of rival Canisius
BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — Elevated as the favorite to win its first Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference championship in women’s basketball, Niagara was picked eight spots ahead of rival Canisius in the preseason poll of coaches. Yet midway through MAAC play, the local rivals boasted the same league record, tied for fourth in the standings.
Reacquainted for the season’s first Battle of the Bridge contest, the visiting Purple Eagles soared above the Golden Griffins, leading for the entirety of a 65-55 victory, the fourth in a row for Niagara (9-10 overall, 7-5 MAAC) on Tuesday night at Koessler Athletic Center.
“It’s all coming together,” said Aaliyah Parker, the junior forward from Cardinal O’Hara who recently joined her sister Angel as the 26th Niagara player to score 1,000 points. “Our chemistry is getting better. Every game we are improving on something that we weren’t doing so good at. And now we’re doing it right.”
“Just finding our flow,” Angel Parker added. “Finding what we do best, and then applying that each game, more and more.”
What the Purple Eagles have done best since the Parker sisters arrived is create havoc on defense, strip mining turnovers better than any team in the nation. They hit their average at Canisius, forcing 26, leading to a 22-12 advantage in points off turnovers, equal to the victory margin.
“We thrive off getting those live ball turnovers and getting out in transition,” Niagara coach Jada Pierce said.
The Golden Griffins’ transition defense, along with strong rebounding in the first half, did well enough to keep the score close. Niagara had only seven points on fast breaks.
“We didn’t necessarily get a lot of pick-sixes, as we like to call them,” Pierce said. “Getting the steal in the open court and being able to score those layups.”
The Parker sisters combined for 29 of Niagara’s 65 points, but nine different Purple Eagles scored, and all came up with at least one steal.
“There’s nobody deeper in the conference than us,” Pierce said. “When we’re on and clicking, we can literally do like hockey shifts.”
Niagara hosts last-place Saint Peter’s on 80s night Thursday at Gallagher Center, playing its fourth game in eight days before matchups with Manhattan (Feb. 8) and Siena (Feb. 15), the two teams ahead of the Purple Eagles in the MAAC standings. Unbeaten Fairfield will be difficult to surpass, but Niagara is trending back toward the No. 2 spot where it finished a year ago.
Canisius (11-9, 6-5), endeavoring to stave off its 15th consecutive losing season, had not lost two in a row until going to Fairfield before this rivalry game. The Golden Griffins haven’t played 20 games in a season without consecutive losses since 1990.
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Jonah Bronstein joined the WIVB squad in 2022 as a digital sports reporter. The Buffalonian has covered the Bills, Sabres, Bandits, Bisons, colleges, high schools and other notable sporting events in Western New York since 2005, for publications including The Associated Press, The Buffalo News, and Niagara Gazette. Read more of his work here.
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