Box Score 

The Niagara men’s basketball team had its four-game conference winning streak snapped by the Marist Red Foxes in an 89-77 defeat on Sunday in its regular season finale.

“The right team won today…the team that deserved to win, won the game,” head coach Joe Mihalich said. “They (Marist) went out there and earned it right from the get go. They played harder, played better and made things happen. I just told our team, in life you get what you deserve and we got just what we deserved today.”

The defeat, combined with Siena's win over Canisius, drops the Purple Eagles (13-18, 8-10 MAAC) into a tie for sixth place with the Saints. However, Niagara loses out in the tie breaker.  As a result, NU is the seventh seed in the 2012 MAAC Tournament, and will play in the first round against Canisius on Friday at 9:30. at the MassMutual Center in Springfield, Mass.

NU, which has rallied from large deficits for wins throughout the season, was unable dig itself out of a hole today. The Purple Eagles scored the game’s first points, a layup by Joe Thomas, but trailed for the rest of the game. Marist (13-17, 7-11 MAAC) seized control of the game in the first half with a 23-7 run over eight minutes to build a 35-16 lead with 5:03 left; and led 46-23 with 54 seconds left before Juan'ya Green rattled off five straights points to end the half trailing 46-28.

In the season’s first meeting, Niagara connected on a season-high 14 3-pointers, but the Purple Eagles only made five in the game which made their comeback bid difficult. Green and Antoine Mason scored 19 and 17 points, respectively, after intermission, but the duo’s effort was not enough to erase the lead as the closest Niagara got was 12 points.

Green, who finished with 30 points for his third 30-point game of the season (Fairfield, St. Bonaventure), had a game-high six assists and a team-high four steals.  Green’s first steal two minutes into the game set the school’s freshman single-season record of 53, which was previously held by Ronnell Felton. Mason had 20 points, a team-high eight boards, four assists and three steals. Mason is now second in program history for freshman scoring (476) behind Green (543). Marist’s Davin Price led all scorers with 32 points, including 22 in the first half.

For all tournament information, go to www.PurpleEagles.com/tournamentcentral.