NIAGARA UNIV., N.Y. – Meghan McGuinness hit a couple of late free throws to give the Niagara the win in an overtime thriller against the Colgate Raiders 66-63 on Sunday night in the Gallagher Center.

“This is one of those non-conference games that gives you great experience for the conference play,” head coach Kendra Faustin said.  “We haven’t been in this particular situation and we executed down the stretch and we got what we wanted.”

The Purple Eagles (5-4) had a chance to win it at the end of regulation with a three-pointer from Kayla Stroman, who finished with a team-high six steals, but it rimed out and they found themselves tied 62-62 with the Raiders (4-6) at the end of regulation.  After Lauren Gatto opened overtime with the last of her team-high 18 points to put Niagara ahead 64-62 the Raiders, with just under a minute left on the clock, hit the front end of an 1-and-1 to climb back within a point. 

With time running out, and Colgate forced to foul, it sent McGuinness to the line with 9.7 seconds left in the game.  The sophomore hit both to finish 3-for-4 from the charity stripe and give Niagara its final 66-63 lead.

“We certainly still have things to work on but this win in particular against a great Colgate team, in this situation, is positive for us and our confidence,” said Faustin.

Gatto finished shooting 7-for-15 (46.7 percent) from the field and 4-for-4 from the line to lead the team in scoring for the seventh time this year.  Chanel Johnson led the team with eight rebounds while adding five points and three assists.

“Chanel is just so tough she doesn’t care,” said Faustin.  “She doesn’t care what the score is and she doesn’t feel the pressure, she just goes and plays.  That’s why she lead us in rebounds.”

Niagara found itself trailing by four, 36-32, heading into halftime but came back to take the lead back with four minutes gone in the second.  The lead switched hands five times in the half before the Purple Eagles were able to take it with 9:31 left but were never able to take a lead greater than four.  Colgate hit a free throw with 26 seconds left to tie the game at 62-62 and send it to overtime.

The Purple Eagles are back on the court on Friday Dec. 21 when they take on Buffalo in a Big Four matchup.  Tip-off is at 2 p.m.