Albany, NY — In a game where they found themselves down 15 at the half, Siena’s comeback attempt fell short, losing to Canisius on Saturday at the Times Union Center 80-73.
In the first half, Canisius dealt with little resistance as they scored with ease, scoring 47 points on an inconsistent Siena defense in the first 20 minutes. Phil Valenti came up huge for the Golden Griffins in the first half, scoring 15 points including three field goals from behind the three-point line. Siena was sloppy on the offensive side of the ball as well, turning the ball over 10 times in the first frame, including a stretch where they were called for a traveling violation in back-to-back possessions.
In reference to the first half, “47-32 is what happened. After that it was all irrelevant,” Siena head coach Jimmy Patsos said.
Patsos would end up being ejected from the game in the second half after getting into an argument with an assistant coach from Canisius, where he picked up his second technical foul after getting one early in the second half. Patsos’ ejection was his second in four years with Siena.
Speaking of his ejection, Patsos said, “We had good referees, it was just an emotional thing. We didn’t have a lead referee though, there was no lead referee out there. These three guys are very young guys, there was no lead official out there, so there was no one to talk to to figure out what was going on.”
In the second half, the Saints made a strong comeback, cutting the lead to single-digits early in the second half and getting as close as three points behind with three-and-a-half minutes to play after Javion Ogunyemi hit a free throw. Siena would not score again until 35 seconds left in the game after Marquis Wright hit a pair of free throws. They had gone on a 14-7 run in the first five minutes of the first half and kept it that way for most of the second half, but the offense struggled in the final minutes, with Siena’s final field goal of the night coming with 4:01 to play, when they had cut the lead to four.
Three pointers were a huge area of struggle for Siena, as they went 0-8 from behind the line, including Wright missing a wide-open shot in the closing minutes that would have brought Siena to within one point.
“We had our opportunities, they fought back. Like Jimmy said, we have to be prepared to play for forty minutes, and we weren’t prepared today,” said Siena assistant coach Greg Manning, who had taken over for Patsos following his ejection.
Siena was led by Marquis Wright scoring, as he had 26 points on the evening. Javion Ogunyemi had 20 points and Lavon Long had 16.
For Canisius, they were led by Phil Valenti who finished the night with 24 points, 15 of them in the first half. Kiefer Douse and Kassius Robertson had 13 points each for the Golden Griffins.
With the victory, Canisius improves to 7-6 in the MAAC and 14-10 overall. They will play again on Monday taking on St. Peter’s in New Jersey. That one will start at 7 PM.
Siena falls to 7-6 in conference play and 10-14 overall. They will be back in action Tuesday taking on Iona on the road. They will play Marist on the road on Saturday, February 11 before returning home on February 13 against Monmouth. All three of those games will start at 7 PM.
