The Niagara Purple Eagles staged another second half rally against Canisius but were unable to secure the win as they fell, 77-70, to the Golden Griffins on Sunday.

The setback snaps NU’s five-game winning streak in the series as it succumbs to its first home loss to Canisius since Nov. 30, 2002. 

“It was a great win for them (and) a tough loss for us,” head coach Joe Mihalich said. “We had opportunities, we had chances, we just talked about that in the locker room, and you know we can’t change what happened today. We got to focus on the future.”

NU (14-11, 10-4 MAAC) was attempting to pull out another comeback win in the series, after erasing a 10-point second half Canisius (16-9, 9-5 MAAC) lead to win in the final seconds on Jan. 27. The Purple Eagles faced a deficit as much as 16 points in the first half and trailed by 13 points with15:12 left in the second half before chipping away at the lead with a 20-6 run over the next 10 minutes.

The run was capped by a Juan'ya Green's free throw to put NU up 53-52 at the 5:58 mark for NU’s first lead since scoring the opening basket. The lead was short-lived as Canisius’ Billy Baron made a pair of free throws on the next possession. The Purple Eagles, however, were very much in the game and took a 64-62 lead, on a T.J. Cline 3-pointer, with under three minutes remaining.

“When T.J. Cline hit that shot I thought we were getting ready to have an unbelievable finish, but you know they did everything they had to down the stretch,” Mihalich said. “Whether it was make a foul shot, make a shot, force a turnover, defend, whatever it was they had to do in the last three minutes they did and we didn’t.”

Trailing 66-64 with less than a minute left, a turnover by NU led to a fast break layup by Harold Washington, who missed it, but was followed by a dunk by Jordan Heath. On the ensuing possession, Green missed a 3-pointer and Baron, who finished with a career-high 33 points, made two free throws on Canisius’ next trip to take a 70-64 lead. NU missed two 3-pointers on its next two possessions as Canisius continued to make free throws, going 9-for-10 at the charity stripe in the final minute.

The difference in the game was at the foul line, where Niagara shot 12-for-23 in the game (9-for-17 in the second half), while Canisius converted 19 of its 24 attempts.

Niagara was once again without Antoine Mason, who is the team’s leading scorer and is second in the conference. Green led NU with 21 points and is two points shy of 1,000 for his career. Devon White, Ameen Tanksley and Cline all finished with 12 points.

The Purple Eagles, who hold a one-game lead for first place in the MAAC, travel to face the Marist Red Foxes on Friday for an ESPNU contest at 8 p.m. The game can also be heard on WWKB 1520 AM and online via Purple Eagles All-Access.