ALBANY, N.Y. – The Niagara Purple Eagles dropped a close road contest to the defending America East champion Albany Great Danes, 65-56, on Wednesday.

Dominic Robb led the Purple Eagles with a career-high 19 points, including 17 in the second half. Matt Scott scored 13 points, Emile Blackman added 12 points, and Maurice Taylor Jr. had season-highs with eight points and a team-high seven rebounds.

"I thought our guys fought extremely hard and played extremely hard, as we always do," head coach Chris Casey said. "We are in the throes of learning how to play together with a number of new guys, (and) learning how to make a few less mistakes so these single digit losses can turn into wins."

The Purple Eagles (3-9) jumped out to a fast start behind Matt Scott, who scored all eight points of Niagara's 8-4 lead four minutes into the game. After Albany (9-4) took its first lead of the game, 14-13, on 3-pointer by Joe Cremo at the 9:56 mark, Niagara regained the lead on the next possession to start a 7-0 run over the next three minutes. A Dominic Robb put back layup started the run and was followed by five straight points by Taylor. However, the Great Danes countered with an 18-4 run to close out the half to lead 32-24 at the break.

With Albany leading 47-29 with 11:58 remaining in the game, the Purple Eagles went on a 14-4 run which was capped by a Taylor 3-pointer to trim the lead to 51-43 with 8:15 left. Niagara, then, had two empty possessions before Albany answered with a 5-0 spurt to increase its lead to 56-43 with 6:18 on the clock. NU once again brought the lead back down to eight with 5:30 left after Robb completed a 3-point play, but a 3-point play by Cremo on the next possession halted the momentum as the Great Danes built a 15-point lead with two minutes remaining.  

The Purple Eagles continue their four-game road trip against Little 3 rival St. Bonaventure on Dec. 30 at 7 p.m. The game will air live on Time Warner Cable SportsChannel and on the Niagara Sports Network via AM 1400 WWWS and PurpleEagles.com/Watch.

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