Jan. 10, 2014
Box Score
Brett Bisping continued his breakthrough sophomore season with a monster double-double, tallying 16 points and 14 rebounds, as Siena rolled rival Marist Friday night in Albany. It was the Saints fifth straight win at Times Union Center and the first loss for Marist's in over a month.
"I'm very proud of the players and the team," Siena coach Jimmy Patsos said. "I didn't think we played bad - don't get me wrong - I'm really happy we won, I thought we did a lot of good things, but it wasn't one of our best games, and we still won and that's the sign of a good team."
Evan Hymes scored 14 of his team-high 17 points in the second half, and Rob Poole scored five of his 15 during a key 9-0 Siena run early in the second half that pushed the lead to double digits.
Freshman Khallid Heart had 22 points for Marist which played without starting center Adam Kemp, who missed the game with a knee injury. The Saints limited talented junior Chavaughn Lewis to just 11 points on 4-10 shooting.
"I was surprised by that," Patsos said of Lewis' line. "I had him down for 20."
Marist led 23-22 with 5:27 left in the first half, but the Saints scored 10 of the final 12 points before intermission to take a 32-25 lead to the lockerroom and never trailed again. Bisping had 11 points and nine rebounds at the break, dominating action on both ends of the floor.
The Red Foxes scored nine of the first 13 points in the second half to close within 36-34, but that's when Poole keyed the 9-0 spurt, and Siena led by at least seven the rest of the way.
Siena held Marist to just 35% from the field and scored 26 points off turnovers. Opponents are now shooting just 37% from the field in Siena's six games at Times Union Center this season.
The Saints turned the ball over just 12 times and got seven assists and four steals from freshman Marquis Wright, who padded his MAAC lead in both categories.
The Red Foxes saw their five-game win streak snapped. Kemp is expected to miss Sunday's game at Manhattan as well.
Siena will try to keep its home court win streak alive Sunday at 2 p.m. when defending MAAC Champion Iona comes to town.
