It's hard to imagine a 6-25 team feeling GOOD about itself when the season finally ended, but that's exactly what happened to Canisius when the Golden Griffins brought the curtain down in Albany.

The Griffs, coming from the No. 10 hole in the MAAC Tournament, beat No. 7 Iona and then threw a scare into No. 2 Rider before going home with something to look forward to as the bulk of the roster comes back next season.

"I told my guys how proud I am and I asked them to think about where we've come from this season," Canisius coach Tom Parrotta said after the 75-71 loss to Rider. "I'm not much for moral victories and obviously we wanted to win the game, but when we played them in their gym, they took it to us."

A lot of teams took it to Canisius in the 2007-08 season. But there is youth and there is talent here and this team will be much better in '08-09.

Parrotta called the win over Iona "a huge step forward for this program," and he was right.

"It's hard to win in the postseason and that makes this win so much better," he said.

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