ALBANY, NY – The future is bright for Siena Basketball. The fifth seeded Saints capped a highly encouraging 2018-19 season with a 73-57 loss to regular season champion, top-seed, and three-time defending MAAC Tournament Champion Iona in the MAAC Semifinals at the Times Union Center. Predicted to place last according to the MAAC Preseason Coaches' Poll, Siena finishes with a league-high 17 wins and tied for second in the conference standings.

Asante Gist scored 22 points for Iona (16-15) which advances to its seventh straight MAAC Championship Game Monday night against No. 6 seed Monmouth. First Team All-MAAC selections Rickey McGill and E.J. Crawford added 18 and 16 points, respectively, for the Gaels which have won nine straight.

Second Team All-MAAC selection Evan Fisher concluded his breakout senior season with 15 points for Siena (17-16) which finishes with a nine-win improvement from last year. The senior leader tallied 492 points during his final campaign after totaling just 348 points spanning 97 games over his first three seasons.

Iona led throughout and by as many as 21 points in winning for the 17^th time in the past 22 meetings between the programs, including 10 of the last 11 in Albany. The Gaels have won all 10 MAAC Tournament matchups vs. the Saints, and ended Siena's run in four of the past five years.

Iona scored the game's first seven points before Kadeem Smithen responded with the ensuing six for the Saints. But the Gaels counterpunched with a 21-6 run to open a 16-point advantage. Iona shot 52% in the first half while limiting Siena to 33% in claiming a 35-22 at the break.

The Saints pieced together several second half mini runs to get within 11 on a few occasions, but were never able to decrease the deficit to single digits.

First Team All-MAAC selection and unanimous MAAC Rookie of the Year Jalen Pickett scored all 15 of his points in the second half, while adding eight assists and seven rebounds to put a bow on an outstanding freshman season. Pickett finishes his rookie campaign having established new program freshman records in both scoring (521) and steals (66), while dishing out the fourth most assists of any player in program single-season history (221).

Classmate and fellow MAAC All-Rookie Team selection Sloan Seymour concluded an impressive freshman season with nine points on a trio of threes for Siena which established a new program single-season record with 288 threes to break the previous benchmark of 283 set in 1998-99. Individually, Seymour hit a program freshman record 94 threes this season which is the third most overall in single-season history.

Pickett and Seymour are part of a solid foundation forged under the direction of first-year head coach Jamion Christian heading into the 2019-20 season. While the Saints graduate five seniors, Siena is expected to return three starters plus highly touted transfers Elijah Burns and Don Carey. Coupled with an impressive crop of incoming freshmen, the Saints will be set to unleash mayhem in full force next season.