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Majesty Brandon drives past the Saint Peter's defender on Feb. 29, 2020 at the Koessler Athletic Center
Marshal Filipowicz
69
Winner Saint Peter's SPU 16-12, 13-6 MAAC
68
Canisius CAN 10-19, 5-13 MAAC
Winner
Saint Peter's SPU
16-12, 13-6 MAAC
69
Final
68
Canisius CAN
10-19, 5-13 MAAC
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
Saint Peter's SPU 31 38 69
Canisius CAN 34 34 68

Game Recap: Men's Basketball |

Men’s Basketball Drops Another Close MAAC Game

Game Recap
Saint Peter's freshman guard Aaron Estrada's free-throw with 7.0 seconds proved to be the difference, as the visiting Peacocks battled back to score a 69-68 win over the Canisius Golden Griffins in MAAC men's basketball action Saturday afternoon at the Koessler Athletic Center. The win, Saint Peter's sixth in its last seven games, moves the Peacocks to 16-12 overall and 13-6 in league play, while Canisius fell to 10-19 overall and 5-13 in conference action with its second-straight loss.
 
Estrada's lay-up with 34 seconds left to play in regulation time put the visiting team up 68-66. Canisius knotted the game at 68-68 with 20.1 seconds left on the clock when senior Malik Johnson hit a pair of free-throws after he was fouled driving to the basket. Out of a Saint Peter's timeout, Estrada drew a foul with 7.0 seconds left, where he missed the first charity toss, but knocked down the second attempt to give the Peacocks the one-point margin. The Blue and Gold pushed up the floor and had an open-look at a 3-pointer to win the game, but the Griffs' last-second try banged off the iron, and Saint Peter's earned the win, snapping Canisius' four-game win streak in the series that dated back to the 2017-18 campaign.
 
A 3-point field goal by sophomore Jordan Henderson with 6:24 left to play put Canisius up 60-55, but the Peacocks answered back with the game's next five points, capped by a 3-pointer from senior Quinn Taylor, to tie the contest at 60-60. With the game tied at 62-62, the Peacocks used a quick 4-0 scoring spurt in the span of 45 seconds to take a 66-62 lead, which was Saint Peter's largest cushion of the afternoon. A free-throw by junior Jalanni White and a 3-pointer from Majesty Brandon tied the game at 66-66 with 45.5 seconds remaining, setting up Estrada's efforts down the stretch, as he scored the final three points of the game for the Peacocks.
 
For Canisius, three players scored in double-figures, led by Brandon, who had a team-high 21 points. Senior Corey Brown recorded a season-high 13 points to go with five rebounds, and Henderson posted 10 points with four boards in the losing effort. White chipped in eight points off the bench to go with five rebounds, a career-high four assists and three blocks, which matched a career-best.
 
Quinn's 22 points, 15 of which came in the second half, led Saint Peter's, which shot 44.9 percent from the field, 37.5 percent from 3-point land and 88.0 percent from the free-throw line in the victory. Quinn also grabbed a game-high 11 boards, as the Peacocks out-rebounded Canisius by a 35-28 clip for the contest.
 
Head Coach Reggie Witherspoon's Postgame Comments
"Credit to Saint Peter's. They played hard and they battled through adversity. They made a free-throw at the end. Give them credit."
 
"People make it seem like taking a timeout is going to be an automatic decider. We practiced with the exact amount of time that was on the clock – seven seconds. We have two or three different plays we can run in that situation and we ran one of them and we got a good look. Now if you call a timeout, and they change defenses, you might have a couple different plays to think about, and I'm not sure we would have gotten as good a look as we got at the end."
 
"There's so many things that happen leading up to the game being close that you have to take care of, and if you do that, then maybe it doesn't have to be that close. If it was that easy, we could just fast-forward to the last 10 seconds of the game. There are too many times where things happen leading up the end of a game, but really, it could be a five-minute stretch in the first half. What are we doing with those possessions? It could be a couple possessions where you defend pretty well, but then you give up an offensive rebound. It's all those things that happen before you get down to the last two minutes. Because once you get there and it's close, it's anybody's game."
 
Game Notes
• Saturday was the 83rd all-time meeting between the two Jesuit schools, with Canisius leading the series 47-36.
• The last three games between these two schools have been decided by four points-or less, with Canisius winning two of those three contests.
• Canisius has lost eight conference games by five points-or fewer this season, the most for any team in the country.
• Brandon has now scored in double-figures 19 times this season, the most for a Canisius player in his first year with the program since former guard Takal Molson in 2017-18.
• Johnson had a game-high five assists in the losing effort, the 75th time in his career he led the Blue and Gold in assists per game.
• Johnson now has 173 assists on the season, making him just the fifth player in school history to dish out 170-plus assists in a year, and he is the first since Billy Baron had 180 assists in 2013-14.

Up Next
Canisius will travel to Marist on March 4 for its final regular-season road game in the 2019-20 campaign. Tip-off in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., is set for 7 p.m., and the game will be broadcast live on ESPN3. The Canisius radio call available through WECK Buffalo Radio (1230-AM, 100.5-FM and 102.9-FM) and GoGriffs.com.
 
For complete coverage of Canisius men's basketball, please follow the Griffs on social media at @Griffs_MBB on Twitter and Instagram.
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