PITTSBURGH – The Niagara Purple Eagles started their season with a 78-45 defeat at the ACC's Pitt Panthers on Friday night.

"This is a young group and I was glad we threw them into the fire for this game," said head coach Chris Casey.  "On our end, we will just continue to work and try to get better, and get these young guys some experience."

Six Purple Eagles (0-1) made their NCAA Division I debut tonight. One of the newcomers, redshirt sophomore Emile Blackman, led Niagara in scoring with 16 points and chipped in three rebounds. The returning cast – Ramone Snowden, Wesley Myers, Rayvon Harris and Cameron Fowler – combined for 24 points and 20 rebounds.

The Panthers (1-0), who return 11 players from last season's team that advanced to the NCAA Tournament Round of 32, took a commanding 32-4 lead with 7:37 left in the first half. However, the Purple Eagles would outscore Pitt, 37-34, over the next 23 minutes.

"Our inexperience was very, very evident in the first 12 minutes of the game," Casey said. "I do think our guys competed and played hard. I thought we had some spurts of playing well. Some positives are we held them to 40 percent from the floor in the second half, got to the foul in 29 times and only had 11 turnovers."

The Purple Eagles now turn their attention to MAAC play as they face Saint Peter's in their conference opener on Thursday, Nov. 20 at 7 p.m. The game can be heard on AM 1400 WWWS and online on the Niagara Sports Network via PurpleEagles.com.