Dec. 31, 2009
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Top-10 Moments
The office of athletic communications completed its countdown of the Top-10 Siena moments of the decade New Year's Eve by naming Siena's men's basketball victory over Ohio State in the 2009 NCAA Tournament as its top choice. Ronald Moore's two 3-pointers, the first of which sent the game to double overtime and the second which won the game, was also the choice for Siena fans who had the opportunity to cast their ballot over the past two weeks at SienaSaints.com.
The complete results of the fan poll can be viewed on the right of the screen. To relieve the athletic department's top-10 simply follow the link to Top-10 moments at the top of the page.
We would be hard pressed to find another moment to challenge Moore's heroics in the entire Siena athletics' annals. Certainly there are many to choose from, but when you consider dramatics and what was at stake, you would get no argument from us if last year's men's basketball NCAA Tournament First Round win in Dayton, Ohio registered at the top your all-time list.
Moore entered the game with a heavy heart. Madeline Willette, his mother's best friend who had watched hundreds of his games, died of cancer just eight days before the Saints' game with Ohio State.
When he hit the shot heard round the college basketball world, he glanced at his older brother Chuck, and then his thoughts drifted to her.
"When I hit the big shot, I wanted to cry," Moore said after the game. "Because I was so happy and so filled with joy, so many emotions."
Siena fans were filled with emotions of their own. The several hundred who made the trip to Dayton jumped and screamed in delirium, a scene replicated throughout the Capital Region and beyond by Siena's sons and daughters.
More important perhaps, was the similar reaction shared by sports fans across the country. Siena was no longer just the name of a minivan or a color to select from your box of crayons.
This was the decade Siena athletics put itself on the national map. From the MAAC Championships our teams won, to the new facilities they won them on, to the way in which they represented our College in winning them...
Siena athletics arrived!
This moment is the exclamation point.
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March 21, 2009 - DAYTON, Ohio (AP) -- Siena strikes again. Ronald Moore hit a 3-pointer with 3.9 seconds left in the second overtime -- from the identical spot he made one at the end of the first OT -- as the Saints beat eighth-seeded Ohio State 74-72 on Friday night in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Siena equals a program record for victories with what may have been the most dramatic win in the 68-year history of the program.
Moore's two clutch shots advanced ninth-seeded Siena (27-7) into Sunday's second round where the Saints will meet Louisville, the tournament's top team. The Cardinals moved on with a 74-54 win over No. 16 seed Morehead State.
Evan Turner missed a leaner from 15 feet that would forced a third OT for the Buckeyes (22-11), who blew an 11-point lead in the second half of regulation. Siena came into the tournament with a higher profile for a small school after shocking Vanderbilt in the first round last March. The little college from upstate New York returned a veteran squad that was given a solid chance of beating one of the Big Ten's powers.
Siena pulled it off despite playing much more like sinners than Saints. Siena committed 22 turnovers and made just 6-of-23 3-pointers, but Moore, who was only 4-of-13 from the field, hit his two big shots when it mattered most.
Once the final horn sounded and Siena had moved on for a date with the fearsome Cardinals, coach Fran McCaffery wrapped his arms in around his point guard and carried him off the floor as the Saints fans, outnumbered by the thousands, chanted "Ron-ald Moore."
The Buckeyes had everything going their way. They were playing just an hour from home and they had the size, strength and stature on their side.
It didn't matter to the Saints, champions of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, who stormed back from a 41-30 deficit in the second half.
