Vermont hands Siena men’s basketball their first loss at home

Albany, NY — The Siena College Men’s basketball team dropped their first home game of the season in a 76-60 loss to the Vermont Catamounts on Thursday at the Times Union Center.

The Catamounts (9-5) picked to finish at the top of the America East conference, ahead of UAlbany, outplayed Siena in all aspects of the game something head coach Jimmy Patsos attributed to a lack of heart from some of the players on his team. “The emotional level of our team is not where it needs to be in the MAAC. I’ve coached a long time in this league. It’s a passionate, caring, emotional, grind it out, tough league and I don’t see that resiliency in us, maybe 2017 will bring me that.”

At the half, the Saints were only trailing by six (36 to 30), and for a brief period of time it looked like they were going to stage a comeback as Javion Ogunyemi delivered a quick score, but following a Vermont answer all the energy exited the arena. “They score, we miss a shot and the guys come down a little disappointed,” added Patsos. “There’s a look of ok maybe, but if we don’t [score] it’s ok.”

 

Siena’s performance at the charity stripe didn’t help them one bit either, going 18 for 27 at 66.7% on the night. “let’s face it, free throws have been our albatross all year,” Patsos went on to say.

The loss comes as Siena’s ninth of the season and eighth outside of the Metro Atlantic Athletics Association. The team will open up the 2017 portion of their season at Canisius on Monday at 2:00 p.m. The game can be heard on Talk 1300AM (WGDJ).

Vermont’s next battle will also come on Tuesday when they host the brainiacs from Harvard at 7:00 p.m. But They’ll be back in the Capital Region on Monday, Jan. 23 for a 7:00 p.m. date with UAlbany, a matchup that Patsos projects will be a preview of the America East title game in March.

-Dylan Rossiter(@ByDylanRossiter)