By Stuart Seidel
The Siena Saints have not started off the season too well stumbling out to a 6-10 record and 4-4 in the conference. Their downstate rivals the Marist Red Foxes have not been doing any better. Marist came into the game with an abysmal 1-17 record and an 0-8 record in the conference. The Saints mainly have injuries to blame, losing one of their most important players Brett Bisping for the year and countless other players for a few games here and there.
Siena looked strong on their first few possessions but then quickly let Marist jump out to a 10-3 lead by hitting a couple of threes. Siena then marched back following three from their own Rob Poole and eventually took the lead 11-10. The teams traded punches until halftime where the score ended up being all knotted up at 28.
Senior Rob Poole was playing on a bum ankle that was heavily taped up but that didn’t stop him from taking over the game. He hit three straight threes at the start of the second half and followed it with a steal to cause the Times Union Center to erupt. The Saints started to pull away after hitting some more threes and going on a 20-2 run. Marist however was able to chip away with some turnovers and easy baskets to cut the lead to nine with five minutes left, but it never got closer than that as Siena eventually pulled away to win by those nine points 69-60.
Siena seemed to be playing with a lot of emotion, whether it was because they were playing against their rivals or because the team was inspired by Poole’s play on a bad ankle. Whatever it was, it worked. Siena won almost every ball under the basket whether it was a clean rebound or a fierce battle for the rock. Siena looked like a different team after struggling to find an identity all year after getting banged up by injuries. Marquis Wright played a great game distributing the ball and the Saints’ shooters fell in line behind him, especially Rob Poole who lead the team in scoring with 20 points. Siena may not have lead Marist in many statistical categories by the end of the game but they played with more heart and had more points which is what matters. Siena’s next game is against Saint Peters this Sunday at the Times Union Center. They will look to win their third straight for the first time all year and could be the first step to them pulling out of this state of mediocrity.
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