WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J. – The Niagara Purple Eagles turned in a gutsy road performance as they fell to the regular-season champion Monmouth Hawks, 77-68, on Sunday.

Playing without their leading scorer Matt Scott for the first time this season, several Purple Eagles (7-24, 5-15 MAAC) stepped in to fill the void. Emile Blackman led Niagara with 22 points to score in double figures for the 14th straight game.

The freshmen trio of Marvin Prochet, Chris Barton and Dominic Robb all had solid numbers. Prochet notched his first career double-double with 10 points while leading the team with a career-high 13 rebounds. Barton scored 11 points, grabbed five rebounds and led the game with a career-high six assists while playing in a career-high 40 minutes. Robb scored 13 points and swatted a game-high three blocks.

Niagara was also efficient at the free-throw line. The Purple Eagles made a season-high 28 free throws, including connecting on 28 of the first 29 attempts, and finished with a season-high 90.3 free throw percentage.  

The Purple Eagles and Hawks traded the lead 10 times in the first half. After Monmouth (25-6, 17-3 MAAC) scored the opening points, Niagara reeled off six straight points to lead 6-3. The lead alternated eight more times and a Barton 3-pointer put NU back in front, 22-20, with 8:14 on the clock. However, Monmouth went on a 13-0 run over the next five minutes to build a 33-22 lead. NU closed the half on a 9-5 spurt to trail 38-31 at the break.

Down 63-51 with 8:59 left in the game, the Purple Eagles chipped away at the lead with 10 points from the free-throw line to the deficit to 66-61 with 5:33 remaining. Then with 2:58 on the clock, a Robb hook shot trimmed the lead to 68-66. The Hawks, though, finished the game on a 9-2 run. Monmouth's Josh James made one of two free throws on the Hawks' next possession and Chris Brady made a jumper in the paint with 1:27 left to extend Monmouth's lead to 71-66. The Purple Eagles would go scoreless on their next three possessions before a dunk by Blackman with 12 seconds remaining.  

The Purple Eagles will be the 10th seed in the 2016 MAAC Tournament in Albany, N.Y. and will face seventh-seeded Canisius at 7 p.m.

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