Jan. 3, 2003

The Saints return home following two of their most impressive defensive performances of the season in capturing the Holiday Stores/Big R Classic in Bozeman, Montana earlier this week...Siena held both its opponents to 37% from the field in becoming just the second team to knock off the host Bobcats in the nine-year history of their Tournament...The Green and Gold used a balanced and more perimeter-oriented attack to pull out the two victories...Senior leader Prosper Karangwa was selected Tournament MVP and sophomore guard Tommy Mitchell joined freshman Antoine Jordan on the All-Tournament team...Jordan enjoyed the best two performances of his young career, setting his career high in scoring with 15 points in the Saints 79-71 first-round win over Loyola Marymount before breaking it with 16 in the Championship game win over Montana State the following day...The Saints appear to have settled into a nine man rotation with each of the nine averaging at least 16 minutes per game...Karangwa leads the team in scoring (16.1 ppg), rebounding (6. rpg) and assists (4.8 apg), but he has had plenty of help from his teammates...Five Saints are scoring at least eight points per game and seven Siena players have registered three rebounds or more...As a team, the Saints currently rank 19th nationally in team rebounding and have out-rebounded their opposition in every game except the Xavier loss (12/23)...Siena is also 5-0 on the season when it holds the opposition under 40% from the field...Today, the Saints welcome Providence of the Big East to Pepsi Arena in the team's final non-conference game of the season...Siena hopes to play before its third crowd of 10,000 or more fans this season...Siena has not lost three consecutive home games since the 1995-96 season.

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