LEWISTON — Guard Rob Garrison and swingman Bilal Benn were thrilled their 20- month wait to get back into a game was finally over. As for guard Tyrone Lewis, the start of his junior season looked like many of the nights in his freshman and sophomore years.

A good time was had by all at Niagara’s season opener Sunday as the Purple Eagles got nice nights from their two newcomers and huge contributions from some old reliables in a 79-62 throttling of Towson in the Gallagher Center.

The old: Lewis poured in a career-high 20 points and the 5-foot-11 jumping jack added eight blocks — the most ever by an NU guard and one shy of the school record of nine set by Joe Arlauckas in 1987. He also had six assists, four rebounds and four steals. And you can’t overlook senior center Benson Egemonye, who had 14 points and a career-high 16 boards.

The new: Garrison, the former Niagara Falls High star and Connecticut transfer, had 14 points, a career-high seven assists and four steals in his debut after sitting out his transfer season. The 6-5 Benn, who last played at Villanova, had only six points on 3-of-12 shooting but collected 11 rebounds, three steals, two blocks and two assists.

“It was fun. That’s an understatement,” said Garrison, who earned chants of “home-town he-ro” from the student section in the crowd of 2,113. “Just like old times. My people from home, playing in front of my family. It’s a great feeling.”

“It’s hard to sit out that year,” said coach Joe Mihalich. “. . . As good as they were tonight, you could still see some of the rustiness but with every game they’ll get better and better.”

Niagara used first-half runs of 15-3 and 10-2 — with Lewis scoring all 10 of those points in an 82-second span — to take control. It was 42-31 at halftime and a 15-4 run burst to start the second half put the visitors away.

Lewis was in March form running, gunning and dunking all over the court. In the key run, he had a pair of three-pointers and followed with two dunks in a 10-second span.

The second, on an alley-oop pass from Benn, had the purple-clad crowd raising the roof.

“I was just playing my part,” Lewis said. “I started a little slow. Bilal got me started with a good pass for the dunk and shots started falling.”

“He’s everywhere,” Garrison said. “He does stuff people his size don’t normally do. Eight blocks? That’s crazy. He had an amazing night.”

There were some less-than-inspiring numbers of Niagara’s stat sheet, as it hit just 30 of 80 from the field, 6 of 29 from three-point range and only 13 of 28 free throws. But when you collect 29 offensive rebounds, force 24 turnovers and hold the opponent to 21-of-69 shooting, you almost always win.

“I thought we were tough and the competitive level was real high,” Mihalich said. “A lot of the [poor numbers] is that first-game stuff, the rustiness, the excitement. But I would hate to dribble a basketball with these guys guarding you because they get into you.”

The contest was the first round of the four-game Philly Hoop Group Classic, which continues when Niagara plays Wednesday night at Villanova in an ESPNU telecast.