Niagara hosts Mount St. Mary's after Leffew's 23-point showing

Mount St. Mary's Mountaineers (5-8, 1-1 MAAC) at Niagara Purple Eagles (6-5, 1-1 MAAC)

Lewiston, New York; Saturday, 12 p.m. EST

BOTTOM LINE: Mount St. Mary's faces the Niagara Purple Eagles after Dakota Leffew scored 23 points in Mount St. Mary's 63-62 loss to the Howard Bison.

The Purple Eagles have gone 3-0 at home. Niagara is third in the MAAC with 32.2 points per game in the paint led by Noah Thomasson averaging 10.0.

The Mountaineers are 1-1 in MAAC play. Mount St. Mary's is 2-5 when it wins the turnover battle and averages 13.3 turnovers per game.

The Purple Eagles and Mountaineers square off Saturday for the first time in conference play this season.

TOP PERFORMERS: Thomasson is averaging 17 points and 3.6 assists for the Purple Eagles. Aaron Gray is averaging 11.6 points and 5.8 rebounds while shooting 39.8% over the past 10 games for Niagara.

Malik Jefferson is averaging 10.7 points and 7.5 rebounds for the Mountaineers. Leffew is averaging 1.9 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games for Mount St. Mary's.

LAST 10 GAMES: Purple Eagles: 6-4, averaging 66.3 points, 31.3 rebounds, 11.9 assists, 4.5 steals and 2.9 blocks per game while shooting 44.5% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 65.2 points per game.

Mountaineers: 4-6, averaging 64.6 points, 30.4 rebounds, 13.9 assists, 6.6 steals and 2.5 blocks per game while shooting 42.4% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 65.1 points.

___

The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.