Canisius College junior guard Julius Coles scored a career-high 27 points, while teammates Greg Logins and Frank Turner added 14 and 13 points, respectively as the Golden Griffins defeated Howard 70-54 in the Koessler Athletic Center Saturday afternoon. Canisius has now won three-straight and improves to 3-1 with the win, while the Bison slipped to 0-7 with the loss.

Coles, who matched his career-high with 26 points in Tuesday's win at Buffalo, scored his game-high 27 points after he went 9-for-17 from the field, 3-for-7 from 3-point range and 6-for-8 from the foul line. He also added five rebounds, an assist and a block to his final stat line, as the Blue and Gold opened the home schedule with a win for the first time since the 2002-03 campaign. Logins added a team-high eight rebounds in the victory for the Griffs, while Turner, who reached double figures in the scoring column for the 23rd-straight game, was credited with a game-high seven assists to go with five steals.

For Howard, Kyle Riley posted a team-high 11 points and Calvin Thompson was good for 10 rebounds. The Bison shot 36.8 percent from the field and 20 percent from behind the arc, while turning the ball over 18 times, against Canisius' season-low nine turnovers.

The Griffs went into the locker room at halftime up five at 30-25, but Howard used a 14-4 run in the second half's first 3:19 to take a 39-34 lead.  From there, the Griffs scored seven of the game's next nine points to knot the game at 41-41, capped by a tip-in from Logins off a miss by Coles. The Blue and Gold put the peddle down on Howard and stretched its margin to 55-45 with 7:30 left thanks to 14-4 spurt, where Coles accounted for seven of those points for Canisius.

"Obviously this is another good win for us," Canisius head coach Tom Parrotta said. "I wasn't really concerned with any hangover after an emotional win at UB, but I think we were a bit gassed in the first half. In the second half, we really got into them and guarded them defensively. That allowed us to get out on the break and attack the rim and that ended up being the difference."

The Griffs ended the contest by shooting 37.9 percent from the field and just 19 percent from 3-point land, but turned 18 Howard turnovers in 19 points. Canisius also held a 21-11 advantage in fast break points while outscoring the Bison 32-22 in the paint.

Canisius will return to action at Eastern Michigan Monday, Nov. 30. Tipoff in Ypsilanti, Mich., is set for 7 p.m.

Game Notes: The Griffs are off to their first 3-1 start since the 2003-04 season... Canisius is now 10-8 all-time in home openers played in the Koessler Athletic Center... This was the fourth all-time meeting between the two teams, with the Griffs holding a 3-1 lead in the series... Coles scored 20-plus points for the fourth time in his career... Turner's 13 points in the win allowed him to move into 12th place on the school's all-time scoring list, passing former Griff Ed Book... Tomas Vazquez-Simmons added two blocks to the winning effort for Canisius, which gives him 144 in his career... He is now tied with former Griff Darnell Wilson for third in school history in career blocked shots... Turner was forced to wear the No. 33 "blood jersey" for most of the game after he bled on his traditional No.1 jersey.