Box Score

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – The seventh-seeded Niagara Purple Eagles had their run in the 2012 MAAC Tournament come to an end in the quarterfinals with an 86-73 defeat to the No. 2 seed Loyola Greyhounds on Saturday night.

“This is the night you don’t want to have come,” head coach Joe Mihalich said. “I love this team. We had some frustrating times but when you are so young as we are, you will have some frustrating moment. Every experience you will have will be the first time for us, like it was tonight, and we didn’t handle it very well.”

Niagara (14-19), the nation’s third youngest team, battled deep into the game with the Greyhounds (22-8). However, Loyola’s experience and size were enough to prevail it to the semifinals.  The first half was an exciting affair with 10 lead changes and nine ties. The Purple Eagles went into halftime tied at 37-37 after Juan'ya Green stripped Robert Olson in the backcourt for a layup with one second left in the half.

Niagara regained the lead briefly to open the second half on a Joe Thomas layup and Ameen Tanksley gave the Purple Eagles their final lead of the game, 41-39, with a jumper at 18:07 on the clock.

Loyola’s post game proved to be too much for Niagara to handle. Loyola doubled up Niagara in points in the paint (44-22), including 22-8 in the second half. The Greyhounds slowly built a 65-54, but Niagara continued to chip away at the deficit, led by Green.

The MAAC Rookie of the Year was a one man show for the Purple Eagles in the second half, leading the team with 16 points and four assists while grabbing three rebounds. Thomas’ layup at 1:56 cut the lead to 76-71 before Loyola closed out the game on a 10-2 run.

Green concluded his sensational freshman season by setting another school freshman record. Green set the freshman single-season field goals record (188) during the game breaking Garry Jordan’s mark of 185 set in the 1977-78 season. Green holds the record for most points (585), field goals (188), free throws (148) and steals (63) by a freshman in school history and came up four assists shy of tying the freshman single-season record.

Classmate Antoine Mason and sophomore Malcolm Lemmons joined Green in double figures with 11 points each.

“It’s a great bunch of guys and I can’t wait for next season to start,” Mihalich stated.