By Stuart Seidel
The game Saturday night at the Times Union Center was much more than just any game. It was a game that had bragging rights of the capital district on the line. A game where the winner got to call them selves the owners of the Albany Cup. The UAlbany versus Siena game is one of the most anticipated sporting events in the Albany area all year. Siena was nine and four against UAlbany when they have played in Division I but the Danes have had the best of the Albany Cup the past few years winning the last three of four including the last two by double-digit points.
After losing to Rider while on the road last weekend Siena wanted to win this game to get back on the right track for both the 14-15 season as well as the Albany Cup series.
The Saints came out slowly in front of a crowd over ten thousand and UAlbany were able to jump out to a 6-2 lead after both teams struggled to score for the first couple minutes. Siena just simply couldn’t get the ball in the basket struggling from around the court as well as in the paint. Siena head coach, Jimmy Patsos quickly turned to Evan Hymes and Maurice White looking for some sort of a spark. While neither team were necessarily lighting up the basket Siena did start to get on the right track following an Evan Hymes three pointer that energized the building.
Shortly after, the best possible thing that could have happened for the Saints happened, Marquis Wright finally made his first basket settled in. It took him over ten and a half minutes to get his first basket but seemed to look comfortable cutting to the basket through traffic numerous times to make what looked like impossible shots from under the basket.
Brandwijk added a three pointer and an alley-oop attempt to help energize the Siena fans but the Saints couldn’t cut the lead down below five by half, trailing 34-27 when the first buzzer sounded.
The second half wasn’t any better for Siena as similarly to their first half, they had their moments, but UAlbany simply controlled the pace of the game. Siena was forced to full court press to try and slow down the Great Danes but UAlbany’s Australians, Hooley and the Rowley brothers moved the ball with ease and made Siena pay over and over with fast breaks.
Siena just seemed to have everything go against them. They couldn’t hit shots and got their doors blown off when they played a full court press. When the full court press did work and created turnovers, they often turned the ball right back over or took a bad shot almost immediately.
Siena struggled to get any sort of momentum going until the final three minutes of the game when they were able to cut the lead to single digits multiple times but never got closer than eight. Even though Siena kept it close at the end, fans still fled for the doors early as the game just never seemed to be in question from the start.
UAlbany simply looked to be the better team tonight, played with more energy and hit more of their shots, including their foul shots. The Great Danes had four players in double digits and three players with at least 20 points. As a team they made 29 of their 32 foul shots and never trailed once in the game.
Whether the loss of Bisping is looming on Siena’s mind or they just got outplayed, Siena needs to figure it out. That is two straight losses for the Saints neither of them looking good at all, and only one of their wins so far this year was a convincing one, the win in which they lost Bisping for at least eight weeks. Once they figure out their identity and the young bigs like Brandwijk and Ogunyemi get comfortable carrying a majority of the work load they will be fine. Tonight they played a team that just seems to have their number as that marks three straight wins for the Great Danes on Siena’s court in the Albany Cup. Will Brown has continuously called for this game to be “fair” and have the home court switched every year, but I’m not sure why as his team seems to dominate on this one.
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