AMHERST — Niagara headed into their regional rivalry game against Buffalo off the heels of their worst loss in program history, needing to show some signs of life.
They did that at points, most notably going on a 7-2 run to start the second half but they did not do it enough and it cost them in a 77-51 loss, Wednesday, at Alumni Arena.
The loss sends the Bulls to an 0-8 record, their worst start to a season since they started the 2001-02 season 0-9. If there can be any light at the end of the tunnel for the Purple Eagles though it is that they finished that ‘01-’02 season 9-10 to end with a 9-19 overall record.
“I think we’re just taking it one day at a time and just trying to get one percent better,” Niagara head coach Jada Pierce said. “We can’t necessarily compare ourselves to teams in the past. We can only live with the team that we have now and just work to get better every day.”
After scoring the first basket of the game, the Purple Eagles struggled through the remainder of the opening quarter, heading into the second down 19-8. At the half, the Purple Eagles had to fight through foul trouble with nine fouls which translated to five made free throws for the Bulls.
In the first half, the Purple Eagles defense held the Bulls to shooting 41% from the field and 40% from three but they were let down by their offense who shot 8-for-28 from the field and 2-for-9 from three. In the opening 20 minutes, the Purple Eagles did not have back-to-back baskets at any point.
The visitors came out of the locker room and did their best to fight their way back into the game going on the aforementioned 7-2 run over the first 2:21 of the third quarter to bring their deficit closer at 43-28, drawing a Bulls timeout.
“I thought it was a really good effort on our parts,” Pierce said. “The last couple games, we haven’t necessarily come out well in the third quarter. So it was kind of nice to see us do that. You always want to force the other team to call the first timeout, with us being able to do that, that was really good. So one of those positive brightspots from today to build on.”
Despite heading into the fourth down 61-39, the third quarter was the Purple Eagles’ best quarter to that point as they scored 18 points on 36% shooting while going 2-for-4 from three and 6-for-9 from the free throw line.
The Purple Eagles finished the game shooting 30% from the field, 29% from three and 60% from the charity stripe. While both teams had 32 turnovers, the Bulls were able to score 33 points off those giveaways whereas the Purple Eagles were able to score 23 points off of them.
“I think we could’ve done a little bit better job with that,” Pierce said. “… They obviously capitalized a little bit more off of theirs and we forced them to 32 turnovers and you usually want almost a one-to-one ratio. So we’re going to force 32 we need to be at least in that range and we weren’t. We were under that. So that’s something we got to get better with. We’re getting steals and things like that we got to execute off of it.”
Since 1974, the Purple Eagles and Bulls have played 45 times as they compete for Western New York supremacy. One player that knows all about that is the Purple Eagles and Buffalo native Jordyn Williams, who finished with a season-high 14 points on 5-for-10 shooting.
“I tried to look for the square because sometimes I go really, really fast and I kind of just throw it up there,” Williams said. “But I try to focus on really looking for the square and getting off there.”
The Purple Eagles return to the floor at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 13, when they go to Cleveland State.