BUFFALO, N.Y. - The Niagara men's basketball team (11-12, 4-7 MAAC) dropped a thrilling overtime contest to crosstown-rival Canisius (11-11, 6-5 MAAC) on Friday, 73-70. The Purple Eagles used a stingy defense down the stretch to force overtime, but the Golden Griffins held on in the extra session.

Niagara never trailed in the first half, but fell behind 62-54 with 4:01 remaining. The NU defense clamped down and held Canisius scorelss for the remainder of regulation. The Purple Eagles followed up a turnover on the offensive end with less than a minute remaining with the biggest defensive stop of the game when senior Bilal Benn knocked the ball away from Frank Turner as time expired.

Niagara jumped out to a quick two-point lead on the first possession of overtime, but never led again in the loss. Turner connected on the biggest shot of the night with a 3-pointer as the shot clock was winding down to push the CC lead from three to six at 70-64 with 42 seconds left.

The Purple Eagles fought back with a pair of triples and, after a missed free throw by Turner with 10 second left, had a chance to force a second extra session, but a 3-pointer by Rob Garrison fell short.

"What a ball game that was," Niagara head coach Joe Mihalich said. "It stings to come out on the losing end, but what a game that was. It was a great rivalry game. I think there were some stretches where we felt like last year. We are going to take some positives and try and build on that."

Junior Anthony Nelson set a career-high with 11 rebounds to go along with his 14 points. Senior Tyrone Lewis led the Purple Eagles with 19 points while connecting on five 3-pointers. Benn finished with 15 points and six rebounds.  Garrison added nine points while Kashief Edwards scored six while adding five caroms in 17 minutes.

More than half of Niagara's field goals attempted were 3-pointers (38 of 75). NU connected on nine triples and made 34.7 percent from the field (26-of-75).

Niagara gets right back on the road on Sunday with a contest at Loyola with a 3 p.m. tip.