Location: Orleans Arena – Las Vegas, Nev.

Starters:  G - #1 Malcolm McMillan; G - #5 Kassius Robertson, G - #23 Jamal Reynolds, F - #22 Phil Valenti, C - #14 Kevin Bleeker

Game Recap
The Canisius men's basketball team posted one of the greatest come-from-behind wins in program history on Tuesday night in Las Vegas, as the Golden Griffins came back from a 13-point deficit with 1:10 left in regulation to earn a 108-96 victory in triple overtime against ULM in the third round of the 2015 Continental Tire Las Vegas Classic. Canisius, which trailed by 11 points with less than a minute left to play in the second half, tied the NCAA record for largest deficit overcome with less than a minute left to play en route to a victory. Canisius has now won two straight to improve to 5-6 on the year, while ULM slipped to 5-6 with the loss.

Canisius freshman Christ Atkinson scored eight of his career-high 13 points in the final 1:02 of regulation, highlighted by the game-tying 3-point field goal with 12 seconds left to play. In the first overtime period, Canisius senor Malcolm McMillan made three free-throws with six seconds left to play to give Canisius an 89-88 lead, but ULM was able to get to the foul line with 0.4 seconds left in the extra session. There, ULM's Nick Coppolla made the first free-throw to tie the game at 89-89, but he missed the second, sending the game to a second extra period.

In the second overtime, Canisus led the Warhawks 96-93 with 1:45 left to play after sophomore Jermaine Crumpton hit a 3-pointer from the top of the key. ULM was able to knot the game at 96-96 when senior forward Majok Deng stepped out and hit a fall-away 3-point field goal with 37 ticks reaming. The Griffs had a chance to win the game in the second overtime session when sophomore Kassius Robertson, who scored a career-high 28 points in the win, stepped to the charity stripe with one second left to play, but he missed both free-throws and the game went to the third overtime.

The third overtime was controlled by Canisius, which outscored ULM 12-0 in the final five minutes of the contest to secure the win. In the third and final OT period, McMillan scored eight of the team's 12 points, highlighted by four-straight free-throws with less than a minute to play.

Canisius had five players scored in double figures, led by Robertson's game-high 28. McMillan had 21 points, 17 of which came in the second half and overtimes, while junior Phil Valenti added 16 points, five rebounds and four steals. Canisius shot just 39.2 percent from the field, but the Blue and Gold made 15 3-pointers and the team went 35-for-48 from the charity stripe to secure the victory.

How It Happened:
• ULM got off to a quick start, and led the game 20-12 with 13:12 left before halftime. From there, Canisius battled back, and took its largest lead of the first stanza at 37-30 thanks to a 25-10 run over the span of 8:18.
• In that 25-10 run, Canisius used the 3-ball to lead the way, with five different players knocking down 3-point field goals.
• ULM closed the first half on an 11-2 run in the final 3:19 before halftime to take a 42-40 lead into the locker room at the break. Canisius shot 50 percent from the floor and 58.3 percent from 3-point land in the game's opening 20 minutes, while ULM shot 57.7 percent from the field and 62.5 percent from behind the 3-point arc.
• ULM led by 13 points with 2:22 left in regulation time after Coppolla hit a jumper from just outside the lane to make the score 71-64 in favor of the Warhawks. The free-throw line ended up being unkind to ULM, as the Warhawks went 2-for-8 from the free-throw line down the stretch in regulation to allow Canisius to whittle the lead back within striking distance.
• Canisius closed the end of regulation on a 14-1 run, highlighted by four 3-point field goals in the final 40 seconds of regulation to knot the game at 78-78.

Beyond the Box Score:
• ULM out rebounded Canisius 56-40, with 42 of those rebounds coming off the defensive glass.
• The Griffs were only charged with 13 turnovers in 55 minutes of game action. Canisius had just two turnovers in the game's first 20 minutes.
• On the other side, Canisius forced ULM into 24 turnovers, the second-straight game where Canisius forced its opponent into 24 miscues. The Griffs scored a season-high 31 points off those 24 ULM turnovers.
• The Griffs had 30-plus makes (35) and 40-plus free-throw attempts (48) for the second-straight game as well.
• Three Canisius players (Robertson, Valenti and McMillan) all played more than 40 minutes in the win, while Crumpton played a career-high 39 minutes for the Blue and Gold.
• ULM had six players score in double figures, led by Deng's 21 points and 10 rebounds.

Quotes from Canisius coach Jim Baron
"This was an amazing team effort. We just kept coming at them. We had guys like Chris Atkinson, a freshman, making huge threes and then we had a redshirt-freshman in Isaiah Gurley take a huge charge late. That right there was an example of how we play. We're junk-yard dogs. We don't give up."

"When we were down eight and I told the guys, we can win this thing. Then we made some shots. This is a great win against a really good mid-major program a long way from Buffalo. We had to withstand the wave and we just kept battling." 

"I thought they got tired late, they had some guys foul out and we switched to zone because they couldn't make jump shots. That led to long rebounds and we were able to break out and come down to score." 

"I give credit to our upperclassmen, guys like Malcolm [McMillan] and Phil Valenti. They just kept going. Malcolm was in foul trouble but he played smart, and he led by example. He was all over the floor. Phil is a high-energy guy. He just kept plugging. Then we get a guy like [Jermaine Crumpton] to get hot late - that's a dangerous combination right there."

"We made some mistakes, and they know we need to tighten that up if we're going to be successful this year, but what a gritty effort all around."

"I thought they really took advantage of their size on us in the second half. They were grabbing a ton of loose balls and turning those rebounds into buckets. When [Phil] Valenti got [DeMondre] Harvey to foul out late, that was huge. That gave us some real energy and we just kept fighting the fight."

Additional Game Notes:
• This was the first all-time meeting between these two programs.
• This marked the sixth time in school history where Canisius played a game that went to three or more overtime periods. Canisius is now 5-1 in those six games.
• Tuesday marked the first triple-overtime game for the Griffs since Feb. 16, 2014 – a 92-88 win at Siena.
• Canisius' 108 points are the most for the Blue and Gold since Dec. 3, 1979, when the team defeated Mercyhurst in the Koessler Athletic Center by the score of 113-84.
• Canisius improved to 8-4 under head coach Jim Baron when scoring 90-plus points in a game.
• Senior Kevin Bleeker led Canisius with seven rebounds, the seventh time in his career where he's led the team in rebounding for a game.