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Canisius University Athletics

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Tana Kopa drives to the basket in the first half of a road game at Saint Peter's on March 8, 2025.
Dave Schofield '71
62
Canisius Canis 3-28,3-17 MAAC
70
Winner Saint Peter's SP 12-16,7-13 MAAC
Canisius Canis
3-28,3-17 MAAC
62
Final
70
Saint Peter's SP
12-16,7-13 MAAC
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
Canisius Canis 27 35 62
Saint Peter's SP 38 32 70

Game Recap: Men's Basketball |

Men’s Basketball Season Ends with Loss at Saint Peter’s

Canisius senior guard Tana Kopa scored a season-high 22 points after matching a career-high with six 3-point field goals and sophomore Dylan Godfrey added 12 points, five rebounds and two blocked shots, but it was not enough for the Golden Griffins, who fell to Saint Peter's 70-62 in MAAC men's basketball action Saturday afternoon at the Yanitelli Center in Jersey City, N.J.
 
The win improved Saint Peter's to 12-16 overall and 7-13 in MAAC play, while Canisius saw its season end with a record of 3-28 and 3-17 in conference action.
 
Four Saint Peter's players scored in double-figures, led by Marcus Randolph, who scored a team-high 21 points to go along with four rebounds. Bryce Eaton, Mouhamed Sow and Armoni Zeigler all recorded 10 points in the victory for the Peacocks, who kept their MAAC Men's Basketball Championship tournament hopes alive with the win. For the game, Saint Peter's shot 36.5 percent from the field, 34.6 percent from 3-point land and 88.5 percent from the free-throw line, making 23-of-26 shots from the charity stripe. Additionally, the Peacocks turned 12 Canisius turnovers into 15 points.
 
Kopa ended the day by shooting 7-for-15 from the field, highlighted by a 6-for-12 performance from behind the arc. He also made two of the Griffs' eight total free-throws on the day. Godfrey went 5-for-16 from the field and 2-for-7 from 3-point range, while teammates Cam Palesse and Evan van der Plas each chipped in eight points to the losing effort. Palesse led the Griffs with a team-high seven boards on the day, but Saint Peter's won the rebounding battle by a 38-33 count.
 
A pair of free-throws by Kopa with 10:51 left in the first half got Canisius within four at 15-11, but the Peacocks took control of the game from there, using a 12-2 run over the game's next 2:46 to push their lead to 27-13 with 7:26 remaining in the opening half. In that run, Randolph drilled a pair of 3-pointers, including the basket that put his team up by 14 points. Later in the half, Randolph drilled another trey to give Saint Peter's a 33-17 lead with 4:18 left before intermission, before Canisius battled back and got within eight points on two different occasions in the closing 2:08 of the first half. However, Saint Peter's went into the locker room up 11 at 38-27 after Adetokunbo Bakare knocked down a triple in transition from the far corner with 1:00 left before halftime.
 
Out of the intermission, Kopa and Godfrey combined to score eight-straight points for the Blue and Gold which allowed Canisius to trim Saint Peter's lead down to four points at 42-38 with 15:42 remaining. In the middle stages of the second half, Saint Peter's led by as many as 10 points before the Griffs scored seven-straight points, capped by a 3-pointer from Kopa with 7:23 left to play to make the score 51-48. A pair of free-throw makes by van der Plas with 4:02 left on the game clock cut the Peacocks' lead to three again, this time at 55-52, but a quick 5-0 run by Saint Peter's, capped by a 3-pointer from Bakare with 2:22 remaining, stretched the home team's lead back to eight at 60-52. Saint Peter's was able to seal the victory by hitting 10-straight free-throws in the game's closing 1:05.
 
HEAD COACH JIM CHRISTIAN'S POSTGAME COMMENTS
   
GAME NOTES
• Saturday was the 93rd all-time meeting between the two Jesuit schools. The Griffs lead the series 50-43, but the Peacocks have taken each of the last three games between the two programs.
• As a team, Canisius made 10 3-point field goals, the seventh time this season the team had 10-or more 3-point makes in a game.
• As a team, Canisius went 8-for-8 from the free-throw line. The eight free-throw chances are Saturday allowed the team to finish the season with 390 total free-throw attempts. That set a new program record for fewest free-throws in a season by a Canisius team. The previous record was held by the 1976-77 edition of the Griffs, who went to the line 420 times.
• Canisius played without leading scorer Paul McMillan IV, who missed the team's last two games with a back injury. McMillan IV finished the season averaging 20.0 points per game, making him the first Griff to average 20.0 points per game or better for the season since Billy Baron in 2013-14.
• McMillan IV is just the fifth Canisius junior, and the first since Ron Peaks in 1977-78, to average 20.0 points per game or better for the season.
• Kopa's six makes on Saturday allowed him to finish the season with 97 3-point field goals. That ranks third-best in program history, and stands as the most treys for a Canisius player since Kassius Robertson made 98 3-pointers in 2016-17.
• Kopa is the first player in the MAAC in more than 20 seasons to make five-or more 3-pointers in nine-or more games in one year. He ended the season by hitting multiple 3-pointers in 25 of the team's 31 games.
• Godfrey's 12-point effort allowed him to finish the team's last five games of the season averaging 12.0 points per game.
• Sophomore Anthony Benard was good for six points, seven assists and four steals in the game. His four steals allowed him to end the season with a team-high 59, which ties him for eight-most on the school's single-season steals list with Craig Wise, who also had 59 steals in 1993-94.
 
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