NIAGARA UNIV., N.Y. – Antoine Mason netted a career-high 39 points as the Purple Eagles held off a late rally to defeat the Brown Bears, 68-65, on Sunday at the Gallagher Center.

Mason, the nation's leading scorer, continued his historic scoring pace in today's matchup. Mason set a new career-high for the third time this season as he led all scorers with 39 points, the most by a Purple Eagle (4-9) since Charron Fisher's 41 points against Iona on Feb. 16, 2008. His 39 most are tied for the 10th most by a player in Division I this season.

Mason scored 22 of his 39 points in the first half, but perhaps his most important points came in the winding seconds of the game. The Purple Eagles, who led as much as 17 points in the second half, saw their lead trimmed to 66-63 with under a minute remaining.

With the shot clock running down, Mason split a double team and his tear drop layup over three defenders in the paint went in to give NU a 68-63 with 20 seconds left. On the en suing possession, Niagara forced Brown (6-5) to a contested 3-pointer by Sean McGonagill, who managed a putback jumper as time expired.

In the first half, Niagara trailed 19-15 with 11:35 left before closing the half on a 24-8 run to take a 39-27 lead into the break. The Purple Eagles' lead grew to 17 points with 14:30 remaining in the game. Niagara's lead was buoyed by a strong defensive performance. The Purple Eagles forced a season-high 25 turnovers, the most since causing 26 turnovers in Nov. 2011, which led to a 21-11 points off turnovers advantage. Niagara's 16 steals tied a season-high which was set in the win over Saint Peter's as six Purple Eagles had multiple steals, led by Mason's career-high six.

"We were trying to speed them up and make them play a little bit faster and we did that with some full court pressure and we did it in the half court also," head coach Chris Casey said. "I think what we did a good job of with the full court pressure was we were aggressive, but we weren't aggressive to the point where it was all out gambles and made good decisions when we needed and attacked them."

Brown, however, did cut the lead into single-digits in the final minutes, but Niagara answered as Tahjere McCall went 4-for-4 at the free-throw line with a minute left before Mason's jumper sealed the game. McCall finished with 12 points to join Mason as the only Purple Eagles in double figures.

"That's (Brown) a very good team (and) a well-coached team," Casey said. "I thought we did a good job of kind of speeding them up a little bit and making them play a little faster than they wanted to and I thought that helped us tonight and our guys stayed tough when they needed to stay tough."

Niagara is back on the court on Thursday, Jan. 2 to resume MAAC play on the road against Rider at 7 p.m. The game will be broadcast on ESPN 1520 AM and Purple Eagles All-Access.