Sunday, March 2nd, 2:00 p.m. (et).

FACTS & STATS: Site: Gallagher Center (2,400) -- Niagara, New York. Television: Local. Home Record: Canisius 5-9, Niagara 9-2. Away Record: Canisius 0-14, Niagara 8-7. Neutral Record: Canisius 0-0, Niagara 1-0. Conference Record: Canisius 2-15, Niagara 11-6. Series Record: Niagara leads, 91-73.

GAME NOTES: The regular season in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference draws to a close today as the Niagara Purple Eagles entertain the Canisius Golden Griffins at the Gallagher Center. Canisius has been holding down the basement in the MAAC with a 2-15 record and has now dropped six of its last seven games. The Griffs played on Thursday night at Loyola-Maryland and were turned away in an 88-77 decision, leaving the squad with a mere five wins to this point in the campaign and no chance of recording back-to-back wins during the regular season. It also means that the Golden Griffs are left with this final opportunity to record their first and only road win of 2007-08 as well. As for the Purple Eagles, they took flight two nights ago and were shot down by Siena on the road in a 94-78 outing. The loss snapped a four-game win streak for Niagara and has the squad currently tied for fourth in the MAAC standings with Fairfield at 11-6. Canisius actually won the first meeting of the season against the Eagles with a 70-62 triumph at home back in the middle of January, but still Niagara leads by a 91-73 margin in the all-time series.

Greg Logins and Frank Turner both turned in 17-point efforts against the Greyhounds on Thursday night, the former grabbing a team-best eight rebounds as well. Bob Bevilacqua accounted for 16 points as he converted 4-of-7 chances behind the three-point line, but the rest of the team was a combined 6-of-21 out on the perimeter. The most consistent performer for the Griffs, Turner is atop the scoring list for the team with his 12.8 ppg and has also handed out a team-best 126 assists. He may be shooting only 26.2 percent beyond the arc, but that fact that he has more than three times as many dishes as any of his teammates says a lot about his unselfish play. The team as a whole is shooting just 39.3 percent from the field, which has the squad checking in with a mere 61.6 ppg, versus 73.1 ppg for the opposition.

Ranked first in the nation in scoring with 27.6 ppg heading into play on Friday, Charron Fisher did not disappoint as he posted a double-double with 31 points and 14 rebounds, but clearly he couldn't carry the load all by himself in the loss to Siena. Tyrone Lewis added 17 points and Stanley Hodge had 10, but 16 turnovers and just 9-of-33 shooting beyond the arc killed the visitors. Fisher, who had back-to-back games of at least 41 points last month, has been a shooting machine for the program with almost 600 field goal attempts through 27 starts. As someone who is leading the team in rebounding with 9.3 boards per contest, it almost seems comical that Fisher finds himself out on the perimeter so much on offense, where he has taken more than 200 three-point shots. Then again, that appears to be the goal of Niagara, a team which has let fly with 662 threes, to make just 207 to this point in the campaign.

Living and dying behind the three-point line may be a dangerous way to operate against most of the other teams in the MAAC, but versus a squad like Canisius it doesn't really matter how the Purple Eagles choose to attack.

Predicted Outcome

Niagara 88, Canisius 71