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The Canisius Golden Griffins entered Tuesday night's matchup with the St. Bonaventure Bonnies looking to stay perfect at home this season. The Griffs are coming off of two consecutive home victories against Cornell and Lehigh last week at the Koessler Athletic Center in Buffalo. The Bonnies are fresh off of a win against Loyola (MD) at home this past Saturday.
This game will mark the 164th all time meeting between these two teams in the very long standing Western New York Rivalry. The rivalry goes even deeper than that for Canisius Head Coach Jim Baron who has both played for and coached at St. Bonaventure in his illustrious career. Tonight marked only the 5th time the two schools met at the Koessler Athletic Center.
The first half was a back and forth affair with 8 lead changes. Senior guard Marcus Posley paced the Bonnies with 18 first half points on 5-for-9 shooting from the field including one 3-pointer. Canisius newcomer Malcolm McMillan lead the Griffs in the first half with 12 points making a living at the line going 10/11. The tight back and forth battle looked to be headed to halftime tied at 38 but Posley was fouled behind the arc on a desperation 3 at the halftime buzzer. He would make all 3 free throws to put the Bonnies up at half 41-38.
The second half started out all Bonnies, lead by Posley who was lights out in the second half dropping 17 of his game high 35 points including a perfect 9-of-9 from the free throw line. The Bonnies appeared to be pulling away when they lead by 11 with under 10 minutes to go. The Griffs, however, would claw all the way back to within 2 points on a Jamal Reynolds and-one with just under 3 minutes remaining. After trading missed free-throws on each side Canisius would pull even on a Jermaine Crumpton tip in of a missed McMilan layup at the 1:36 mark. This would mark the 10th and final tie of the evening. Two Mosley free throws on the following possession would pull Bonnies ahead 71-69 again and they would not look back from there. The Bonnies would hang on to win 77-73.
McMilan lead the Griffs with 22 points on 4/9 shooting and 12/13 free throws. Kassius Robertson also scored in double figures with 13 points on 5 field goals. Bonnies senior, Dion Wright had a double double with 13 points and 11 rebounds in the game.
The Griffs are back in action on Saturday against another Western New York rivalry game against Buffalo. The Bonnies will also return to action on Saturday when they return home to take on Hofsta.