QUEENS, N.Y. – Matt Scott's second career double-double and Emile Blackman's game-high 16 points nearly lifted Niagara to a comeback win as the Purple Eagles fell to the St. John's Red Storm, 48-44, on Wednesday at the Carnesseca Arena.

Blackman finished with 16 points to go along with three steals which shared game-high honors with Scott, who scored 14 points and grabbed a game-high 16 rebounds for his second career double-double. His 16 rebounds are the most by a Purple Eagle (3-7) since Bilal Benn's 18 against Mount St. Mary's on Nov. 25, 2009.

The 100th all-time meeting between the two Vincentian Universities came down to the final minute. Trailing 45-42, Marvin Prochet's 3-pointer rimmed out with 33 seconds on the clock. After a pair of St. John's free throws, Scott cut the lead to 47-44 with a jumper in the paint with 18 seconds remaining. On the ensuing possession, the Red Storm's Ron Mvouika missed the second of two free throws, but teammate Yankuba Sima recovered the rebound to effectively seal the win.

"I thought our guys played very, very hard, defended very well and rebounded well enough, but offensively we have to continue to work on getting better," head coach Chris Casey said. "We had a couple of open looks that we needed to knock down, but that will come.  We have a good base on how hard we are playing and showing toughness. We will build on that and as the year goes on we will continue to improve offensively."  

Quick runs in the first and second halves seized momentum for the Red Storm (6-3). St. John's led 9-2 six minutes into the first half before the Purple Eagles trimmed the lead to 19-18 after a powerful dunk by Dominic Robb with 4:12 left in the half. The Red Storm answered by reeling off eight straight points and went into halftime leading, 27-20.

The Red Storm opened the second half on a 7-2 run and later led 38-26 for their largest lead of the game with 13:55 remaining. However, the Red Storm went scoreless for over six minutes; and Niagara's 7-0 run cut the lead to 38-33.  

St. John's, then, ended its drought with five straight points to lead 43-33 with 5:31 remaining, but the Purple Eagles responded with a 9-2 run over the next four minutes which was capped by another Robb dunk to bring the Purple Eagles to 45-42 with 1:29 on the clock.  

The Purple Eagles return home to host LIU Brooklyn on Saturday, Dec. 12 at 3 p.m. For ticket information, contact the Niagara Athletics Ticket Office at 716-286-8499, visit www.PurpleEagles.com/Tickets or tickets@niagara.edu.  

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