Junior Lorenzo Miles had a team-high 19 points vs. Marist.

POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. – Three players scored in double figures but a bad first half cost Niagara University as it lost 89-71 at Marist College Thursday night in a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference men’s basketball game in the McCann Center.

Junior Lorenzo Miles (Washington, D.C.) scored a team-high 19 points while senior James Mathis (Newark, N.J.) had 15 points and junior Clif Brown (Ferndale, Mich.) 12 points. Brown and classmate J.R. Duffey (Fort Worth, Texas) had game highs of seven rebounds each.

Niagara jumped out to an 8-2 lead on three-pointers from Miles and Duffey, and a layup from Mathis, but Marist put together a 27-6 run over an 11-minute span that put Niagara in the hole early.

The Purple Eagles cut the lead to 10 points when Duffey hit a three-pointer with 2:11 remaining, but the Red Foxes outscored Niagara 6-2 to finish the half.

Mathis opened the second period scoring Niagara’s first nine points. Miles made it a 13-point game with one of his game-high four three-pointers at 15:53, but that was as closest the Purple Eagles would get the rest of the contest.

The Red Foxes stretched their lead to 26 points before the Purple Eagles used a 17-3 run late in the game to cut their lead to 14, 85-71.

Niagara was outrebounded, 37-30, and shot 37.9 percent from the field while Marist shot 57.1 percent from the floor, including 42.1 percent from three-point range.

Niagara concludes its regular-season schedule Saturday when it plays Siena at 7 p.m. in Albany.