Entering Friday night's "Battle of the Bridge" game at the Koessler Athletic Center, nearly every indication pointed that the first-place Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Niagara Purple Eagles and the nation's No. 1 scorer, senior forward Charron Fisher, would handily beat its local basement dweller MAAC foe, the Canisius Golden Griffins.

However, the old testimony about rivalry games held true: throw everything out the window before hand, because anything can happen.

On the back of sophomore guard Frank Turner's 17 points, Canisius upset Niagara 70-62 to snap a nine-game losing streak against the Purple Eagles and a 12-game MAAC regular season losing streak.

"We didn't come in here prepared to just compete," said Canisius head coach Tom Parrotta. "We prepared to come in here and win this game."

In the first few minutes of action, the game looked as if Niagara (11-5, 5-2 MAAC) was going to run away with it early as the Purple Eagles opened the contest on an 11-0 run. But the Golden Griffins (3-14, 1-6 MAAC) came back to tie the game up twice in the first half before taking the lead 28-27 on a pair of free throws by freshman forward Tomas Vazquez-Simmons. Canisius took a 30-29 lead into the half.

"I said to the team today that in the first half we looked so mature," Turner said. "The coaches were so tough on us the last few weeks. This means everything to us right now."

Things stayed choppy in the second half, as Niagara took a brief one-point lead after hitting two foul shots by freshman guard Anthony Nelson. But Canisius responded by going on a 9-0 run capped off by a Turner layup to take a 45-37 lead.

"We didn't come to play," Fisher said. "We didn't respect them early and when you let a team like this stick around, anything can happen at the end."

The Golden Griffins would get into foul trouble in the last 10 minutes of the second stanza, as Vazquez-Simmons, Frazier and sophomore forward Menghe a'Nyam all fouled out in that timeframe. Yet, the Purple Eagles were never able to take advantage against their shorthanded opponent as Canisius extended its lead to as much as 11 points.

"(The fouling out) didn't matter," said Niagara head coach Joe Mihalich. "They were tougher than us, the ones that fouled out and the ones that didn't."

Canisius coined the game as "Brian Dux Night" in honor of the former Canisius guard and Orchard Park native that was seriously injured in a car accident in England this fall. It was only fitting that the Golden Griffins were led by another Orchard Park native in walk-on junior guard Bob Bevilacqua led the team in assists with four and tied for a team-high 28 minutes.

Fisher had a game-high 21 points for Niagara with sophomore guard Tyrone Lewis scoring 15 points and senior guard Stanley Hodge netting 13 points. Lewis also led the team in steals with five while junior center Benson Egemonye pulled down nine rebounds.

Along with Turner's 17 points, three other Griffins reached double-digits in points with Bevilacqua, Vazquez-Simmons and junior guard Willie Hassell all scoring 10 points a piece. Vazquez-Simmons had a game-high three blocks and tied for a team-high in boards with freshman forward Greg Logins with eight.