The AU Men's Basketball team suffered its second straight road defeat Saturday night, falling to Niagara, 78-71.
The Eagles were led by center Matej Cresnik, who scored 17 points, and Raimondas Petrauskas, who netted 16 on 7-of-10 shooting.
AU hung tough for most of the evening, trailing by only one point with seven minutes to go. However, a five-minute scoring drought killed the Eagles' chances of coming back against their MAAC opponent.
A surprisingly tough game was turned in by leading scorer Andre Ingram. Ingram, who scored 38 points in his homecoming against Virginia Commonwealth University Monday night, struggled from the field, shooting 4 of 13 and scoring only nine points. He also grabbed seven rebounds and handed out six assists.
AU couldn't deal with the bulk of 6-foot-8-inch, 245-pound Niagara forward Juan Mendez, who scored 30 points and pulled down nine rebounds. David Brooks also scored 18 for the Purple Eagles.
Niagara, coming off a five-point loss to nationally ranked Providence, forced 14 turnovers and snagged seven steals to knock off AU, which did have a hot shooting night, shooting 53 percent from the field.
Senior point guard Ryan Graham scored 12 points for AU and played 31 minutes, substituting for starter Linas Lekavicius.
Next up for AU is Tuesday's home opener against Wagner at 7 p.m. in Bender Arena.
