JERSEY CITY, N.J. (Jan. 18, 2021) - For the third straight game, the Saint Peter's men's basketball team had at least nine different players score at least two points while holding their opponent under 65 points to earn a 65-57 win over Canisius College Tuesday inside Run Baby Run Arena.
Junior Isiah Dasher poured in a season-high 17 points to finish just one short of his career-high and lead the Peacocks to their third win in five days and improve their overall record to 6-6. SPU is now 4-1 in MAAC play and alone in second place while the Golden Griffins dropped to 5-12 overall and 1-5 in the league.
Much as they have all season, the Peacocks played stifling defense throughout, holding the Griffs under 60 points for just the third time this season and just 36.2 percent from the floor. SPU, who came into the game with the best scoring defense in the MAAC, improved their season average and are now allowing just 63.9 points per game to now rank inside the top 60 teams in the country.
Junior KC Ndefo also had a strong effort in the win, nearly notching a double-double with eight points and a career-high 12 rebounds.
SPU has now won three straight regular season MAAC games for the first time since Feb. 9-23, 2020 when they ran off five straight en route to a 16-4 regular season conference mark.
How It Happened
- The Griffs came out of the gates hot and opened the game on a 13-3 run to take a 10-point lead at the under-12 timeout as the Peacocks started just 1-12 from the floor.
- Trailing 15-5, SPU started to find a groove as they answered with a 12-5 flurry of their own capped off by a 3-pointer from Doug Edert to cut the deficit to 20-17.
- With the score 27-22 with less than three minutes to play, the Peacocks closed the half strong as they did not allow a made field goal over the final 5:10 of the stanza and rattled off six straight points to take a 28-27 lead into the break.
- The two teams traded buckets back-and-forth to open the second half and the Peacocks held a slight 34-33 edge with 15:37 left after a basket by Oumar Diahame.
- With the score 36-35, the Griffs knocked down back-to-back 3-pointers to re-take the lead at 41-36.
- SPU responded immediately, however, as Matthew Lee hit a layup and drew a foul for a 3-point play and Ndefo knocked down a jumper to knot things up at 41 with 11:24 left to play.
- The run did not stop there for the Peacocks as Fousseyni Drame and Dasher combined to score seven straight points to give SPU a 48-43 edge at the under-8 timeout.
- Canisius managed to battle back and tie things up at 50 thanks to a pair of free throws but Edert answered with two of his own to make it a two-point edge with 5:38 left to play.
- After an offensive foul on the next possession, Hassan Drame was able to slip to the basket and collect a pass from Ndefo for the two-handed slam to make the score 54-50 with 4:25 remaining.
- The Griffins again cut the deficit down to two and were looking for a stop with just over a minute left to try and get the ball back with a chance to take the lead.
- Ndefo was not going to let that happen, though, as he received an entry pass from Lee and powered his way to the basket for two points and the foul. The 2021-22 MAAC Preseason Player of the Year knocked down the free throw to complete the 3-point play and essentially seal the game putting SPU up 59-54.
- Four straight made free throws from Marty Silvera and Dasher down the stretch sealed things for the Peacocks to send them to their third straight MAAC win.
Post Game Press Conference (Head Coach Shaheen Holloway and Isiah Dasher)
Inside the Numbers
- After starting the season 2-5, the Peacocks have now won three straight games and four of their last five to put head coach Shaheen Holloway just two wins from becoming the sixth coach in program history to amass 50 career wins.
- As it has been all season, the bench was big for SPU outscoring the Griffs bench 43-21.
- As a team, the Peacocks committed a season-low seven turnovers while forcing 17 and holding a sizable 16-2 advantage in points off turnovers in the win.
- In Holloway's tenure as head coach, the Peacocks are now 7-1 when turning the ball over less than 10 times in a game.
- SPU finished the contest 22-28 from the free throw line to tie a season-best 78.6 percent from the stripe.
- Led by four more blocks from Ndefo, the Peacocks blocked a season-high nine shots in the win compared to just two for the Griffs.
- The Drame brothers along with Silvera each poured in six points while Edert finished with seven.
- The 17 points for Dasher were the most since he scored 18 in a game at Oregon State as a member of the Portland University men's basketball program. He is the seventh different student-athlete to score in double figures in a game for the Peacocks this season.
Next Up
- The Peacocks will head to Western New York for the trip upstate starting with a contest at Niagara University Friday night at 7:00 p.m.
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