In the 7 o’clock game Fairfield jumped out to a big lead and never lost it in their 67-55 win against Canisius. Early shooting struggles led Canisius to find themselves down 35-14 at halftime. While they did make a strong comeback to bring their deficit into single digits, Derek Needham and and Anthony Johnson proved to be too much for the Golden Griffins.

Needham finished with 29 points and Johnson added 16, but this game had its own controversy that many will remember most about it. With 5:09 left in the second half and Fairfield leading by 7 points, Canisius’ Frank Turner was ejected for hitting an opposing player below the belt. It was unclear from the video evidence whether the incident was intentional, but Turner’s absence essentially meant doom for the Canisius season. At that point Turner had 15 points while Greg Logins contributed 20 points.

In the late game, Niagara upset Iona 68-64 in a matchup where the score was close throughout the contest. For Niagara, Tyrone Lewis had 21 points, 10 rebounds and Bilal Benn chipped in 16 points 11 boards. A helping factor was the team’s solid free throw shooting going 33-38 (86.8%). They will face Fairfield tomorrow at 6:30.

Scott Machado finished with 17 points for Iona. Alejo Rodriguez had a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds. They shot only 4-18 (22.2%) from 3-point range.