Niagara improved its record to 12-3 in an 82-70 win over Loyola College Monday night in Buffalo. Loyola led 39-36 at the half, and the lead changed six times during the game.  Coach Joe Mihalich must have 'splained some things to the Niagara team during halftime, and Niagara outscored Loyola 46-31 during the second half.

Loyola's Jamal Barney, a 6'3" sophomore guard, led all scorers with 20 points.  He also pulled in seven rebounds.  Five of Loyola's guards accounted for 62 of the team's 70 points.  The frontcourt was ineffective, and Loyola was outrebounded 46-33.

Bilal Benn, a 6'5" junior transfer from Villanova, scored 14 points, grabbed nine rebounds, and handed out six assists for Niagara.

Niagara is beginning to look like the class of the MAAC.  They are 3-0 in league play.  Siena is 10-4 overall and 4-0 in league play but have not so far lived up to preseason expectations after their good play in last year's NCAA tournament and their return of all five starters.

This will be an interesting year in the MAAC with these two teams playing at Siena on Jan. 24 and at Niagara on Feb. 27.  I'm seeing a couple of close games and a home and away split.  Then there is the MAAC tournament March 5-9 in Albany. 

Loyola is slowly improving—at least the guards are.  They lost to a very strong Niagara team at home by 16 points on Dec. 7 and were never out of it during yesterday's game at Niagara.  They led at the half and were within three (56-59) at the 12:26 mark.

Loyola next plays Fairfield (8-6) at home on Jan. 9.  Let's see if Loyola's play continues to inch forward.  This should be a very close game, and Loyola has a better than 50 percent chance of pulling out a win.