Courtesy of GoGriffs.com
Two free-throws by Saint Peter’s reserve guard Roy Clarke with 58 seconds left proved to be the difference, as the visiting Peacocks held on to defeat Canisius 54-52 Sunday afternoon in MAAC men’s basketball action at the Koessler Athletic Center in Buffalo, N.Y.
The Golden Griffins (5-4, 1-1 MAAC) had two chances to tie or win the game in the closing seconds of the contest, but both shots from inside the paint banged off the rim, allowing Saint Peter’s to score the victory and improve to 3-4 overall and 2-0 in league play.
Two made free-throws by Clarke with 1:49 left in the game put Saint Peter’s up seven at 52-45, but the Griffs would not go away, as back-to-back buckets by junior Frank Mitchell made the score 52-49 with 1:09 left on the clock. Clarke was fouled by Canisius on the ensuing inbounds pass, and he calmly knocked down a pair of free-throws with 58 seconds left to push the Peacocks’ cushion back to five points at 54-49. Canisius cut into Saint Peter’s lead on its next trip down the floor after junior Tre Dinkins drilled a 3-pointer from the top of the key with 48 seconds left to play, and then Canisius took its final timeout.
“Give Saint Peter’s credit,” Canisius head coach Reggie Witherspoon said. “They came in here and never allowed us to get into any flow offensively, and they made it hard for us to get good, clean looks at the basket. When we did, we didn’t take advantage. We did not play with our normal level of poise on offense, and then we found ourselves scrambling and they either forced us into a bad shot, or we had those shot-clock violations.”
Clarke had a chance to put the game away for good on Saint Peter’s next possession, but his jumper from the middle of the lane hit the back-iron, and Mitchell grabbed the rebound, one of his game-high nine boards on the day. Canisius raced the length of the floor, where Dinkins knifed through the lane and missed a contested jump shot in the paint, but senior Bryce Okpoh grabbed that rebound. Okpoh’s shot with less than three seconds left also banged off the side of the rim, and the final horn sounded as Saint Peter’s guard Latrell Reid grabbed the rebound along the baseline.
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For Canisius, Mitchell scored a game-high 16 points to go with his nine rebounds, while senior Siem Uijtendaal added 12 points, three rebounds and three steals. Okpoh was good for eight points and five rebounds for the Griffs, who shot 35.3 percent from the field, 33.3 percent from 3-point land and just 45.0 percent (9-for-20) from the free-throw line in the losing effort.
Reid was the only Saint Peter’s player to score in double-figures, as he posted 10 points to go with seven boards and four assists. Six of Clarke’s eight points came at the free-throw line and Corey Washington came off the bench and added eight points to the winning cause as well. For the game, Saint Peter’s shot 38.8 percent from the floor, went just 2-for-12 from 3-point land and shot 73.7 percent (14-for-19) from the charity stripe.
“I thought [Saint Peter’s] did a nice job using their depth today,” Witherspoon said. “One thing we need to understand and learn is that we play back-to-back in this league on Friday, then Sunday. We need to come out and be ready to go. I felt like we took a little time to get going today early on. We were not crisp, and we were not strong with the ball. We’ll look at the tape and make the adjustments, but it doesn’t make a loss like this any better.”
In a tightly contested first half, Canisius took a 19-10 lead with 6:16 left before intermission on the power of a 3-point make by Uijtendaal. Saint Peter’s was able to cut the Griffs’ lead to five at 21-16 with 3:37 left before halftime, but Canisius scored four of the final six points in the opening stanza to take a 25-18 lead into the locker room at intermission.
In the second half, back-to-back buckets by Mitchell pushed the Blue and Gold’s lead back to 29-20 with 19:02 left to play. Moments later, a 3-pointer by junior TJ Gadsden made the score 39-30 in favor of the Griffs, but Saint Peter’s pushed back and took the lead for good, riding a 15-0 run over the span of 5:16 to take a 45-39 lead. In that run, Brent Bland hit the only two 3-pointers of the game for the Peacocks.
Canisius will close out its three-game homestand on Wednesday, when the team returns to non-league action with a home game against Robert Morris. That game is set to tip-off at 7 p.m., and it will be broadcast live on ESPN+. The audio call can be found on GoGriffs.com and the Golden Griffin Broadcast Network, with the M&T Bank Pregame Show starting at 6:40 p.m.
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