BRIDGEPORT, Conn. – Senior Anthony Nelson scored a game-high 28 points as the eighth-seeded Niagara Purple Eagles fell to the No. 9 seed Marist Red Foxes in the 2011 MAAC Championship First Round on Friday at the Webster Bank Arena at Harbor Yard.

Nelson, who set the career assists record and the single-season steals record, completed his final collegiate game five points shy of tying a program-best scoring output in a MAAC Tournament game. The nation’s leader in steals had two steals to finish with 98 on the season and 3.3 per game. Nelson finishes his career first in assists with 647, second in steals with 230 and with 571 rebounds. He surpassed Alvin Cruz tonight for 27th place all-time in scoring with 1215 points.

“I’m in awe of Anthony Nelson, he is an incredible person and player,” head coach Joe Mihalich said. “He had a lot of individual things happen to him (this season). He was defensive player of the year, he set an assist record and a steal record and all of those individual accomplishments were team’s things.  When you play for your team like he does, that says something about someone.”

Niagara (9-23) was done in by Marist’s (6-26) 46.6 field goal percentage, including shooting 58.6 percent in the second half to pull away for the win. Nelson provided majority of the offense for Niagara on the night, accounting for half of the field goals made.

“Obviously we laid an egg tonight and I’m very disappointed,” Mihalich said. “We had such a good February and I thought we were in a good frame of mind, but it was a clunker.”

Marist built an early first half lead, before the Purple Eagles went on a 9-0 run to the game at 18-18 with 5:43 left. The Red Foxes jumped back out in front and held on to a 29-26 halftime lead. Marist would seize control of the game in the first five minutes of the restart. The Red Foxes started the second half on an 11-2 spurt and maintained at least a seven-point lead for the rest of the game. Marist finished with three Red Foxes in double-digit scoring led by Jay Bowie with 13 points.

“Chucky (Martin) did a great job getting his guy ready," Mihalich said. "His players executed better, played harder, were tougher and (played) with a purpose; we got what we deserved and they deserved to win.”