Jan. 23, 2015

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Rob Poole ignited a decisive 20-2 run just two minutes into the second half in Siena's 69-60 win over archrival Marist in front of 6,770 fans at Times Union Center Friday night. The Saints move to 5-4 in the MAAC with Saint Peter's coming to town Sunday afternoon.

Poole shook off a sprained ankle to score a game-high 20 points and made 5-7 three-pointers, including three during the tide-turning spurt. Siena (8-10, 5-4) moved into a fifth place tie with Manhattan while Marist (1-18, 0-9) stumbled to its 18th loss in 19 games this season.

"I think we played like that in the second half, like nobody was going to give us anything," Siena coach Jimmy Patsos said. "Everybody's trying, no lack of effort. The fans were great, the students were great. I just thought the crowd energized us to win."

There wasn't much energy in the building after a sloppy first 20 minutes resulted in a 28-28 tie at intermission. Both teams shot well under 40% in the first half and Siena had 10 turnovers.

That all changed when Poole rose for his first of three three-pointers in just over a minute with 17:46 to play. When the dust settled, Siena led 41-33 and was never seriously threatened the rest of the way. The lead grew to 15 after Lavon Long calmly sunk a top-of-the-key three-pointer with 12:54 remaining. Siena shot 52% from the field in the second, continuing an encouraging trend of hot shooting in the building where the MAAC Championships will be contested.

Chavaughn Lewis led Marist with 19 points, but needed 21 points to get there. The Red Foxes shot just 34% from the field, even with four straight three-pointers that cut the Siena lead to six with 40 seconds to play.

Marquis Wright stuffed the stat sheet with 14 points, five rebounds and four second half assists in 39 minutes played. Long reached double figures for the 30th time in his promising career with 15 points, and Javion Ogunyemi reached double figures for the seventh time in 10 games, finishing with 11 points and five boards.

Siena has rebounded smartly from a 34-point loss at Canisius a week ago, posting consecutive league victories for the first time this season to climb back in the MAAC race.

The Saints will try for their first three-game win streak of the season against the Peacocks in less than 48 hours.