Loyola-Maryland vs. Canisius

Jon Popofski's buzzer-beating layup lifted Canisius to a 74-72 win over Loyola, Md., Friday night in the first round of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Tournament.
Popofski finished with 21 points and Kevin Downey scored 20 for the Golden Griffins (9-19), who entered the game as the tournament's ninth seed in the 10-team MAAC. Canisius advances to play Marist in a quarterfinal game on Saturday.
Andre Collins scored 24 points for Loyola (15-13), which was attempting to advance to the quarterfinals for the first time since 2001. The Greyhounds, who swept their two-game regular-season series against Canisius, have lost their last five meetings against the Golden Griffins in tournament games.
The decisive play came when Canisius got a chance for one final shot after Collins' 17-footer dinged off the right side of the rim. Popofski ran down the rebound, allowing the Golden Griffins to call a timeout with 3.3 seconds left.
On the ensuing play, Downey inbounded a long pass to Popofski, who caught the ball just above the 3-point line in the Greyhounds' end. Cutting across the top of the key, Popofski drove the left lane through traffic and laid a shot in off the backboard just as the buzzer sounded, sparking a wild celebration among Golden Griffins players on the court.
Canisius won coming from behind and after squandering a 39-32 lead at the break. Loyola responded with a 22-6 run, capped when Collins completed a four-point play that put the Greyhounds up 54-45 with 12:30 left.
The Golden Griffins, however, responded and tied the game at 72 when Downey hit a hook shot in the right post with 1:27 remaining.
The fates appeared to be against the Greyhounds from the beginning when Collins and Hassan Fofana, the team's two leading scorers, were stuck in an elevator at their hotel for half an hour. They arrived about 50 minutes before tipoff, Loyola spokesman Eric Rhew said.