BALTIMORE, MD – Men's basketball fell in non-conference play to Morgan State 81-73, Saturday afternoon at Hill Field House.

The Purple Eagles fell to 2-8, while the Bears improved to 2-8.

Morgan State struck first with a free throw, but Niagara quickly responded with a Will Shortt layup off an offensive rebound to take an early lead. 

Two three-pointers from Vice Zanki followed by an and-one play from Brian Griffith gave the Purple Eagles a 18-16 advantage.

Following that the Bears went on a 10-2 run to regain the lead 28-20. Niagara answered with a 10-2 run of their own with free throws from Reggie Prudhomme and Justin Hawkins along with a three pointer from Justin Page to knot the game up at 30.

Morgan State ended the first half with a 5-3 run in the final 1:30 to go into half up two.

The Bears started the second half with a 15-5 run with Shortt and Kabeya Tshibangu accounting for the Purple Eagles points.

Page tried mounting a comeback converting back-to-back layups followed by another three pointer to spark a 9-2 run for Niagara that was capped off with a layup from Zanki.

Morgan State went on another run, this time 11-4 with six minutes remaining to gain a 63-51 lead.

Once again Niagara answered back with a 10-5 run of their own to cut the lead to seven with baskets from Page, Zanki, Prudhomme and Griffith.

The final two minutes of the game turned into the foul game with the Bears coming out on top 81-73.

Game Notes

Niagara is now 1-1 all-time against Niagara

Page led the Purple and White with 18 points

The Purple Eagles scored 32 points off the bench compared to the Bears' 16

Sabino set a career-high with four steals

Up Next

The Purple Eagles stay on the road, heading to Virginia to take on VCU Monday, December 15 at 7 pm.