Canisius College senior Julius Coles scored a team-high 20 points and fellow senior Greg Logins registered his 11th career double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds as the Golden Griffins defeated long-time rival Niagara 69-54 in front of a sold out Koessler Athletic Center Friday night. The win improves Canisius to 10-10 overall and 4-6 in MAAC play, while the Purple Eagles dropped their fifth straight to fall to 4-18 overall and 1-9 in league action.

Coles scored his 20 points after he went 7-for-12 from the field, 4-for-6 from 3-point range and 2-for-3 from the free-throw line in 34 minutes of action. Logins, who scored a career-high 30 against Iona last Sunday, followed that effort with his first double-double of the season, while senior Elton Frazier and sophomore Gaby Belardo added 11 points apiece. Canisius shot 48 percent from the field and closed out the night with a 26-12 advantage in points scored in the paint.

For Niagara, Marvin Jordan recorded a game-high 23 points in the loss, while senior Anthony Nelson chipped in 19 points and three steals. The Purple Eagles shot 31.9 percent from the floor and 42.1 percent from behind the arc and ended the night by being out rebounded by a count of 37-29.

Canisius led 31-23 at the break and took a 38-29 lead with 17:14 left in the game after close knocked down a jumper from just outside the lane. But Niagara fought back, using a 9-0 run over a span of 4:48 to knot the game at 38-38 with 12:15 left on the clock after a pair of made free-throws by Jordan. Canisius regained its lead moments later after Logins hit two charity tosses to make the game 40-38, but the Purple Eagles answered again with three-straight points to knot the game at 41-41 with 9:18 left in the game after Malcolm Lemmons scored on a drive to the hoop and Marvin Jordan hit one of two free-throws.

Down the stretch, Canisius' lead hovered around seven points before Coles broke the game open with nine-straight points in 2:40 which drove the score from 51-49 to 60-49. Coles capped his personal scoring run with a 3-pointer from the corner off a pass from Belardo, and sophomore Alshwan Hymes locked it up for the Blue and Gold on the Griffs' next time down the floor with a long trey from the right wing.

"To their credit, our guys dug deep late in the game and really took control," Canisius head coach Tom Parrotta said. "Give Niagara credit, because they played really hard, maybe as hard as they've played all season. They are so dangerous from 3-point range and they made a few that got them right back in the game. I felt like we regained our focus late and we made sure to do the things we talked about all week."

Canisius jumped out to an early seven-point lead at 12-5 just 6:41 into the ball game after Belardo hit a fall-away jumper from the top of the key. The Griffs stretched their margin to as many as 12 points at 25-13 with 4:31 left before the half on a Hymes 3-pointer, but Niagara cut the cushion to single-digits as the teams went into the locker room with a 10-5 run in the final 3:28 of the first stanza. The Griffs shot 48 percent from the field and 36.4 percent from 3-point range in the game's first 20 minutes, while Niagara shot just 26.1 percent from the floor, despite hitting 3-of-7 shots from behind the arc.

Hymes ended the night with nine points off the bench for the Griffs, while senior Tomas Vazquez-Simmons chipped in four points, four rebounds, two assists and a blocked shot. Belarod added a career-high seven assists in the winning effort, while Coles added four assists as well as Canisius racked up 18 assists on 24 made baskets.

Canisius will return to the road Monday, Jan. 31, when the Blue and Gold meets MAAC-leading Fairfield in Bridgeport, Conn. Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m., and the game can be seen live on the MSG Network.

Game Notes: This was the 166th all-time meeting between these two schools, with Niagara now holding a 91-75 advantage in the series... Canisius has now won three of the last four games between the long-time rivals in the Koessler Athletic Center... The 15-point win was the Griffs' largest margin of victory at home against Niagara since Feb. 22, 1995 when the Blue and Gold beat the Purple Eagles 84-65 in the Koessler Center... Coles scored 20-or more points in a game for the 11th time in his career... Coles moved into sixth-place all-time in career 3-pointers made - he now has 140 in his career... Belardo has double digits in the scoring column in each of the last five games where he's averaging 15.4 points per game in that span... Logins' 11 rebounds are a season high and gives him 695 for his career, which ties him for eighth all-time in school history with former Griff Tom Chester... The sellout crowd of 2,196 is the ninth sellout since the KAC was redesigned before the 2002-03 season, with three of those sellouts being Niagara games... Canisius picked up two points in the Battle of the Bridge series, which Niagara leads for the 2010-11 academic year by a score of 7-6.