Niagara Niagara/Syracuse Syracuse Men's College Basketball recap on ESPN

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) _ Damone Brown matched his career highs with 26 points and 13 rebounds Saturday night, leading Syracuse to a 95-69 victory over Niagara.

Syracuse (11-1; No. 13 ESPN/USA Today; No. 15 Associated Press), which opens Big East play Tuesday night against Notre Dame, beat Niagara (4-7) for the eighth straight time in the first game between the teams since the 1982-83 season.

The Orangemen took control late in the first half, outscoring the Purple Eagles 20-7 after Daryl Greene hit three foul shots for Niagara to tie the game at 26 with 6:31 to play.

Preston Shumpert began an 11-point Syracuse run with a 3-pointer from the left corner with 4:06 left. A dunk and four free throws by Kueth Duany and a layup by Shumpert gave Syracuse a 42-30 lead with just over a minute left.

Duany, who finished with a career-high 14 points, added four more points to give the Orangemen a 46-33 halftime lead.

Brown scored the Orangemen's first 10 points in the first four minutes of the game and scored another 10 in the first six minutes of the second half as they got their transition game going.

Syracuse ran out to a 24-point lead, 77-53, on Brown's slam dunk off an alley-oop pass from Allen Griffin.

Shumpert also finished with 14 points, Griffin had 13 and five of Syracuse's 24 assists, and DeShaun Williams added 12 points.

The Purple Eagles fought hard at the outset despite sub-par performances from their top scorers. They hit their first four shots and were 6-for-7 when Demond Stewart hit a pullup jumper to give Niagara a 17-16 lead with 14:43 left.

Although Stewart finished with a team-high 22 points, all but three came in the second half. He was 1-for-7 from the floor and was whistled for three fouls in the first period.

Michael Schmidt added 11 points and Shey Cohen had nine for Niagara.

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