NIAGARA UNIV., N.Y. – The Purple Eagles won their second game in a row with an 82-55 victory over the Kent State Golden Flashes Saturday afternoon at the Gallagher Center, the largest margin of victory since Kendra Faustin’s first game as head coach at Niagara.

Saturday’s 27-point win is the largest margin of victory since the 2007-08 season opener against Colgate that ended with a score of 78-39.

“We’re starting to gel offensively, which has really been our Achilles’ heel, so we’re really excited about that,” Faustin said after the game.  “We want to continue to make sure that defensively that night in and night out we’re doing the things we need to do.”

Niagara (3-3) came out on fire Saturday afternoon and took the early lead over the Golden Flash (0-7).  Through the first 13 minutes of the half they shot 71.4 percent (10-14) from the floor and held a 25-20 lead going into the first media timeout.  Even after Niagara began to lose favor down the stretch with an unforgiving rim, it was able to maintain their lead by taking advantage of turnovers and outrebounding Kent State.

The first half ended with Niagara outscoring Kent State off turnovers 19-2 and outrebounding the Golden Flashes 18-11 on its way to taking a 35-27 lead into halftime.

“We wanted to make sure we were dictating in the defensive end,” said coach Faustin.  “It’s something that we talk about every game and I thought that we did that in the first half by putting a lot of ball pressure on and keeping them out of the middle of the paint.”

Niagara came out of the break and went on a 13-4 run to extend their lead to 48-31 in the first five minutes of the second half.  Kent State was able to battle back to get within 12 points with eight minutes to play but the Purple Eagles closed out the game with a 23-8 run to coast to a 82-55 win.

Lauren Gatto led the way offensively and was one of two Purple Eagles to barely miss out on a double-double.  Gatto, who only played 21 minutes, scored 18 points and pulled in a team-high nine rebounds.  Chanel Johnson was right on her heels with 16 points and eight rebounds of her own.  Kayla Stroman and Kelly Van Leeuwen also scored in the double-digits, with 11 points apiece. 

“We’ve always known that [Lauren Gatto] is capable of this but Lauren is just starting to figure out that Lauren is capable of this,” Faustin said.  “It’s really exciting and fun to watch.”

“[Chanel Johnson] has the most amazing tools and she’s now putting it all together and making the right decisions - when to shoot, when to pass, getting comfortable with our personnel, and gelling on the offensive end.”

As a team Niagara scored 34 points off of 25 turnovers, the most in a game since the 2009-10 season when they forced 27 against Manhattan on Jan. 9, 2010.  It also outrebounded its opponent for the second time this season as Niagara pulled down 43 boards to Kent State’s 30. 

The Purple Eagles are back on the court Saturday Dec. 8 when they hit the road to face Lehigh.  Tip-off is at 7 p.m.