Jan. 30, 2010

Final Stats

Alex Franklin finished with 22 points and seven rebounds, Ryan Rossiter had 16 points and 10 boards and Ronald Moore dished out 11 assists as Siena kept rolling along with a 79-60 drubbing of archrival Marist Saturday in front of a standing room only crowd at the McCann Center Saturday in Poughkeepsie. The victory pushed the nation's longest win streak to 13 games and improved Siena's MAAC record to a perfect 12-0 for the second straight season.

Edwin Ubiles returned to the rotation and came off the bench to score 15 points on 7-11 shooting. With Ubiles on the floor, the Saints' offense flourished. Clarence Jackson found his touch from the outside and finished with 11 points to round out Siena's four double figure scorers.

With Jackson and Ubiles clicking from the outside and Franklin and Rossiter unstoppable underneath, Moore had the Saints firmly in control from start to finish.

Siena never trailed and led by double figures for the final 16:05 when Franklin sank a mid-range jumper. The advantage ballooned to 24, 75-51, allowing Fran McCaffery to sub freely in the final stanza.

Freshman O.D. Anosike scored five second half points to go along with five second half rebounds. In total, 13 players saw action in the second half for Siena.

The Saints shot 60% (29-48) from the field and held their opponent to 61 points or fewer for the fourth straight game. It was the team's 38th straight win when limiting the opposition to fewer than 70 points.

Marist got solid contributions from junior Korey Bauer and freshman Daye Kaba who finished with 18 and 17 points respectively. But Siena dominated the smaller Red Foxes on the glass, controlling a 30-21 rebounding edge.

The Saints improved to 36-2 in their last 38 games against MAAC schools. Remarkably, Siena can wrap up a share of the regular-season title and the #1 seed in the MAAC Tournament (March 6-9 in Albany) with wins in its next two games - home contests with Iona (Feb. 5) and Fairfield (Feb. 8).

The victory may also prove critical for the Saints' ESPN BracketBusters draw. The network will announce the 11 televised BarcketBusters matchups at 6:30 p.m. Monday evening on ESPNU, and it is widely expected that Siena will draw one of the premier matchups. The Saints already know they will be on the road BracketBusters weekend (Feb. 19 or 20).