March 2, 2002

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - Hodari Mallory banked in a shot from the lane with 0.3 second left in overtime as Canisius upset top-seeded Rider 85-84 Saturday in a quarterfinal game at the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Tournament.

Canisius (10-19) advances to face Niagara in a semifinal game Sunday at noon.

With 6.8 seconds left, Rider's Jerry Johnson was at the free throw line for a one-and-one opportunity with Rider (17-11) holding an 84-83 lead. He missed the first attempt. Mallory grabbed the rebound, dribbled the length of the court, spun in the lane and knocked the shot off the glass for the win.

Mallory's shot ruined a marvelous performance by Johnson, who scored a career-high 36 points and hit 8-of-10 3-point shots.

The tournament is starting to resemble last year's for the Griffs. Last season they entered the tournament as the No. 7 seed but advanced to the finals, where they lost to Iona 74-67.

In the final five minutes of regulation the game was taken over by Johnson and Brian Dux. Johnson scored 14 of his team's final 16 points in regulation, including a 3-pointer that gave the Broncs a 77-75 lead with 36.1 seconds left. Dux was equally impressive for Canisius, scoring his team's final 10 points in regulation and banking in a shot with 7.4 seconds left to send the game into overtime.

Despite falling behind 13-3 only 5:18 into the game, Canisius was able to stay close through the first half thanks to strong shooting and 14 points from Andy Bush. After hitting just one of their first six shots from the field, the Griffs went 10-of-19 for the rest of the half.

Bush finished with 18 points, while Dewitt Doss added 15. Mallory had 12.

Rich Baker scored 16 points for Rider.