Box Score BUFFALO, N.Y. – Canisius defeated Saint Peter's 82-67 in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) men's basketball opener for both teams on Friday night.
Marvin Dominique (Miramar, Fla./Miramar [Fordham]) paced the Peacocks (2-5, 0-1 MAAC) with his third career double-double, tallying 25 points and 10 rebounds. It was the junior's third-straight 20-point performance and fourth of the season.
Vic Adams (West Palm Beach, Fla./West Palm Beach [Dodge City CC]) added a career-high 13 points off the bench in the loss.
Jordan Heath fueled the Golden Griffins (4-3, 1-0 MAAC) with a career-high 28 points along with 10 rebounds. Chris Manhertz added 13 points and Billy Baron tallied nine points and seven assists in the winning effort.
Canisius took the lead it would not relinquish midway through the first half and never looked back to open up league play with a win and earn its third-straight win against Saint Peter's.
After Saint Peter's grabbed a 16-15 lead, Canisius closed the final 10:30 of the first half on a 22-14 run to take a 37-30 lead going into the locker room.
Tyler Gaskins (Rosewell, Ga./Centennial Lawson State CC]) gave the Peacocks its only lead in the first half on a jumper at 10:49, but Baron took the advantage back 15 seconds later to start a 20-7 run to extend the lead to 35-23 with 4:06 on the clock. Heath sparked the run with eight points, including the 3-pointer at 4:06 to give the Golden Griffins the 12-point lead.
After Heath's basket, Saint Peter's responded with seven of the final nine points to go into the locker room trailing by seven points. Dominique went down the lane and scored at the two-minute mark before Adams hit a jumper at 120 and Dominique jammed in a dunk with 61 seconds left to trim the margin to 37-29. Heath then scored in the lane at 28.2 seconds left before Trevis Wyche (Neptune, N.J./Saint Peter's Prep) made 1 of 2 at the line to conclude the scoring in the first half.
In the second half, Wyche cut the margin to 43-36 with 17:48 left. Canisius responded with a 16-5 run to grab a 59-45 lead and the Peacocks could not cut it to single digits the rest of the way.
In the first half, Canisius jumped out to an early 6-2 lead thanks to four points from Manhertz in the first two minutes and 29 seconds of the game.
The Golden Griffins maintained a four-point edge until the Peacocks went on a 5-0 run to take its only lead in the first half at 16-15 with 10:49 on the clock. Dominique made 1 of 2 at the line at 12:24 before Adams and Gaskins each hit a jumper at 11:28 and 10:49, respectively to give Saint Peter's the one-point edge. Cansius then took the lead it would not reliniquish en route to an 82-67 win.
The Peacocks fall to 17-16 in league openers and 11-9 in circuit starters on the road. The squad opened up MAAC play in Buffalo for the fourth time in team history and against the Golden Griffins for the third time.
Saint Peter's returns to action when it wraps up its two-game conference swing at Niagara on Sunday. Tip off is 2 p.m.
