BUFFALO, N.Y. – The Niagara men's basketball team fell to rival Canisius, 87-74, on Wednesday night in the final game of its three-game road swing.

"We fought extremely hard during the entire game and I was proud of our fight," head coach Chris Casey said. "I thought we needed to make a couple of shots early on to keep pace with them. The biggest difference of the game was we needed to guard without fouling, as there was too much of a discrepancy on the foul line."

The setback was only Niagara's fifth in the last 23 meetings against Canisius and its fourth in the last 13 visits to the Koessler Athletic Center. Antoine Mason led Niagara (5-15, 2-7 MAAC) in scoring with 29 points on 11 of 19 shooting from the field to increase his nation's leading total to 27.7 points per game. Marvin Jordan added 19 points to average 20 points in four trips to Canisius (13-7, 7-2 MAAC) while scoring at least 16 points in every game. Rayvon Harris was the other Purple Eagle in double-digit scoring with 10 points.

The difference in tonight's Battle of the Bridge game was at the free-throw line where Canisius held a commanding advantage. The Golden Griffins went 26-for-29 at the charity stripe while NU only attempted 16 free throws, converting seven of them.

Niagara was in foul trouble early as four Purple Eagles had two fouls through the first nine-plus minutes of the game. Canisius took advantage and was aggressive on offense, outscoring NU 26-14 in the paint in the first half. The Golden Griffins led 39-20 with 3:50 on the clock, before NU trimmed the lead to 45-31 at halftime.

The Purple Eagles, who trailed by 20 early in the second half, didn't go away quietly. Niagara went on a 16-6 run in four minutes to cut the score to 68-60 with 8:26 remaining. Canisius answered with a 9-2 spurt in a three-minute span as it held off Niagara's surge.

Niagara returns to the Gallagher Center on Friday, Jan. 24 to face the Marist Red Foxes at 7 p.m. The game will be broadcast on Time Warner Cable SportsChannel, ESPN 1520 AM and Purple Eagles All-Access.

For ticket information, contact the Niagara Athletic Ticket Office at 716-286-8499, tickets@purpleeagles.com or www.PurpleEagles.com/Tickets.