Jan. 8, 2015
Final Stats
Siena sprinted to a 19-0 lead and held off a second half challenge in a 79-69 MAAC win over Niagara Thursday night in frigid Albany.
Evan Hymes paced the Saints with a season-high 21 points on 9-10 shooting.
"I thought Evan Hymes just brought a tremendous amount of energy," Siena coach Jimmy Patsos said. "Two days ago in practice, (he) said: `We have a chance to win this league and we're going to come out and prove it (tonight). People like Evan on our team, so when they see him playing with that much energy and enthusiasm they go right along with him."
Niagara (3-10, 2-3) didn't make its first field goal until the 12:28 mark of the first half. By that point, Siena had built a 21-5 lead and seized control of the game. But the Purple Eagles eventually found their footing, and used a 10-0 run midway through the second half to close the gap to 51-47 with 11:59 to play.
Niagara's run came with Siena starters Lavon Long and Javion Ogunyemi on the bench with four fouls. Both players returned with 9:41 to play and the Saints scored the next six points to push the lead back to double figures. They were never seriously threatened again.
Rob Poole finished with 17 points and nine rebounds and made all eight of his free throws. He also had an outburst of emotion during a timeout late in the game that seemed to reenergize his teammates.
"I was really bummed Poole didn't get one more rebound, because he really deserved a double-double for how hard he was playing," Patsos said.
The Saints shot 53% from the field and blocked a season-high eight shots in the victory. Ogunyemi had five of those blocks in 25 minutes before fouling out.
Long ended with 14 points on 7-9 shooting in just 19 minutes. He fouled out with 6:53 to play, but the Saints finished strong. Steady point guard Marquis Wright stuffed the stat sheet with 12 points, eight rebounds and seven assists in 39 minutes.
Wesley Myers kept Niagara close with a career-high 21 points, sinking 6-8 shots and 4-5 three-pointers.
Walk-on Jimmy Merrill provided the exclamation point, bringing the crowd to its feet with a breakaway dunk off a long inbounds feed with 23 seconds left.
Siena tied the all-time series at 46-46 with Thursday night's win. The two teams will meet again at Niagara next Sunday.
