ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - Alvin Cruz scored a career-high 22 points and Daryl Greene and Tremmell Darden both added 19 as Niagara defeated two-time defending conference tournament champion Iona, 89-83, Saturday in a quarterfinal game in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Tournament.

Niagara (17-13) advances to face the winner of the quarterfinal matchup between Rider and Canisius in a semifinal game at noon Sunday. In last season's tournament, Niagara came in as the No. 2 seed but was upset in the quarterfinals 72-70 by Canisius.

The Purple Eagles held a seven-point lead at halftime and opened the second half with a 14-4 run the Gaels couldn't recover from. Greene hit two 3-pointers and James Reaves had four quick points to key the spurt.

Iona (13-17) did manage to close the deficit to eight points with 11:20 left but an 11-0 run by Niagara made the score 67-48 and the Gaels would get no closer than eight points until Solomon Brown hit a layup with less than three seconds remaining.

Dyree Wilson led Iona with 21 points while Brown added 20.

Both teams struggled shooting the ball in the first half, with Iona hitting 33 percent of its shots from the field and Niagara hitting 36 percent. The Purple Eagles hit just 7-of-21 shots from inside the 3-point line in the opening half.

Niagara opened the game with a 10-2 run but Iona chipped away at the lead for the rest of the half and eventually took a 24-23 lead when Greg Jenkins hit a half-hook shot with 4:07 remaining. The Purple Eagles answered back with an 11-4 run to end the half with a 35-29 lead.