ALBANY, N.Y. – The last few Albany Cups have been emblematic of Siena’s seasons.
Two years ago, in front of the home crowd at MVP Arena, the Saints were a complete no-show, losing by 35. It was a harbinger of things to come, the second of five 30+ point losses that led to Carmen Maciariello’s firing at the end of the season.
In Gerry McNamara’s first Albany Cup, Siena fought hard the whole way, but couldn’t get up off the canvas when punched down in the final minutes. Throughout the season, the Saints had moments where they looked like a budding MAAC contender but couldn’t string together enough wins and finished 9th with a loss in the first round of the conference tournament.
If Friday night is going to be the same oracle, it will be a tumultuous, yet successful second campaign for McNamara in the capital district. The Saints led by as many as 18 points after Brendan Coyle opened up the second half with a three, but UAlbany cut that all the way down to four. However, Siena never trailed, picking up a 73-63 win that displayed both the team’s strengths and weaknesses.
“The heartbreak for us last year was we’d lost too many close ones,” McNamara said. “So the whole season has been about can we win the close ones. Unfortunately, (on Monday), we lost on a bank buzzer-beater. I would’ve loved to take that game to overtime. This was another close one. We’re going to continue to fight every night. We talk about the non-negotiable here is you have to play hard because at the minimum, that puts you in the fight.”
From the very start, Siena was guns-ablazing. The Saints were the more athletic team. They were the more skilled team, and they were the better coached team in the first 20 minutes. Justice Shoats started the offense off, driving and dishing as the Saints made their first nine field goal attempts. Even when UAlbany made a 12-0 first-half run to tie the game at 20, Siena responded with a 9-2 run, and kept pushing the lead out to as many as 17 in the first half.
It built off of a pent-up emotion from last year’s Albany Cup loss inside the Broadview Center.
“That put a chip on our shoulder,” Shoats said. “Especially at their place, they’re really excited. We heard them celebrating, so we took that into this game.”
For a Saints team that relies heavily on veterans like Shoats, Coyle, and sophomore Gavin Doty, who have been in this rivalry before, this wasn’t a new experience. Even Tassie Goodrick and Antonio Chandler – Siena’s two starting transfers – are veterans who have played in high level college basketball games. Goodrick was 7-for-7 from the field in the opening 20 minutes for 15 points.
When the game got tight in the second half, it was the vets who came through and pushed the Saints forward. UAlbany head coach Dwayne Killings said that Siena was just ahead of his team in that regard at this moment.
“I think they understand how to win better than we do right now in close games,” he said. “We made it a two-possession game with just over four minutes left, and we just couldn’t make the plays.”
But Doty could make the plays. After a quiet first half, he became Siena’s offensive catalyst in the second half. Whenever Siena needed to snap a scoring drought, he was the guy to do it. His devastating left-to-right crossover got him into the lane to draw fouls and attempt layups.
While Shoats and Goodrick may have been the story of the first half, Doty came up when he needed to in the second. Partially because Goodrick was taken out of the flow of the game by Great Dane big man Okechukwu Okeke. He dominated the first half from the pick-and-roll, finding wide open shots in the paint, but couldn’t create that space in the second.
“I got more physical,” Okeke said. “I told myself I wasn’t gonna allow it, which I should’ve done in the first half.”
It resulted in Goodrick watching the last 8:29 of the game from the bench, while freshman Francis Folefac gave the Saints a different lineup.
Without Riley Mulvey, who is in concussion protocol, Folefac was the only option for a big man off the bench, and he did just enough.
“Some of the shots weren’t falling, but in the post, he’s such a presence,” Goodrick said of his freshman teammate. “[He] makes it really easy for other players.”
Doty had to play all 40 minutes, Coyle played 36. Shoats played 35 and would’ve played more had he not picked up his fourth foul with 5:12 to play. McNamara, with a double-digit lead, had enough confidence to go to freshman Christian Jones in that spot. While he finished out the game, he had played just five minutes prior to that.
Only three Saints came off the bench, and one of them, former UAlbany guard Marcus Jackson, played just four minutes. Siena is 348th nationally in bench minutes thus far. Usually, teams have to cut their rotations down as they get deeper into the season, but Siena is going to have to find ways to expand its. Obviously, not having Mulvey and Reid Ducharme doesn’t help, but McNamara knows he’s not there yet.
“I think for young players, the term leash, I hate that,” McNamara said. “This is winning basketball. Every possession matters. So the sooner you figure it out, the better off you’re going to be. You can’t afford to ‘oh, I made a mistake,’ that mistake might be the difference between winning and losing.
“We’re not where we are. I would’ve liked to have gotten into the bench tonight, but we were -9 in a 3:50 stretch in the first half. We’ve got four games in the next nine days, so we’ve got an important stretch. Guys are going to get opportunities. What you do with your opportunity determines how much you play.”
But at the end of the day, Siena won the Albany Cup despite the flaws. Its best players came up with big plays, whether it was Shoats early or Doty late. McNamara continually cited Shoats’ 17 assists to two turnovers in the final two games of the season last year over the offseason, and his growth as a playmaker has been clear. He dished out nine assists on Friday to go along with the 14 points. His scoring gravity created pick-and-roll passing looks.
Rivalry games aren’t supposed to be easy. Ever. If it is, then something has gone seriously wrong on one side, or seriously right on the other in a way that goes deeper than just one night.
But in front of 7,000 strong at MVP Arena, Siena showed flashes of everything it could be. Its stars can take over and control games as well as just about anybody in the MAAC. There will be bumps along the way, but the Saints could be paving the path for a big season.
