MEN’S COLLEGE BASKETBALL: Niagara spoils Siena’s senior night and home finale (2024)

ALBANY, N.Y. — With a 66-59 loss to Niagara University on Thursday night in the home finale, the Siena College Saints men’s basketball team officially finished with a 2-12 record at MVP Arena across the 2023-24 season.

This defeat comes less than a week on the heels of the Saints (4-26) already having set a new, program-record-low for losses in a single season – a mark that now climbs one higher.

“We don’t even talk about it. I mean, these guys are working hard. We’re not concerned with our record, especially now; there’s no N.I.T. for the regular season champ, there’s no consolation prize. We want to get better every day,” Siena head coach Carmen Maciariello said in a postgame press conference following the loss, Thursday.

“There was no talk about when we won a program-record 16-straight games, through two years, and set that tone, either, so these guys know. They know they work hard every day, we’ve been unfortunate and dealt some difficult hands, and they haven’t wavered with who they are as people and I think that’s the life lesson that we’re teaching. So, we don’t concern (home record). Obviously, we don’t like it, right? If you’re a competitor, you don’t like it. But, we work and we move on.”

While Siena got a lift from senior forward Steven Lazar, who got to make his first collegiate start for the team’s senior night Thursday, and sophom*ore forward Brendan Coyle, who scored a career-high 19 points, Niagara (15-14) would still find a way to play spoiler, behind three of its own registering double-digit point-totals in the season’s penultimate win.

Purple Eagles senior guard Braxton Bayless may have been the difference maker, as, after the team’s second-leading scorer this season failed to log any playing time in the first half, coming back from a missed game due to injury, Bayless would play 16 of the final 20 minutes and score 14 points, on 7-8 shooting from the field. Siena went into halftime trailing just 26-22, but would eventually trail by as much as 12, late in the second half.

“He’s one of their better players, so it’s about us staying down, being disciplined, and being able to just guard,” Siena redshirt-sophom*ore forward Giovanni Emejuru said postgame, during the press conference.

Emejuru would score 14 for Siena, eight of which came to start the second half and get the group back to a tie score, at 37-37, with 13 minutes to play. Siena would keep pace with Niagara for the next six minutes, down just 49-47 with 7:11 remaining, but would then see Niagara embark on a 12-2 push, to take its biggest lead of the night, at 61-49, with under two minutes to play.

“I thought we had probably a couple turnovers and then probably missed a couple of shots that we usually make and then, obviously, I think they were able to execute. I thought we were scoring at a point, but we could never get over that hump,” Maciariello said. “We could never get that stop where we needed to go down and now take a lead.”

Siena would get back to within as close as five, on a three-pointer from Coyle. However, the make would come with five seconds left on the game clock and Niagara would just have to sink a pair of free throws to close the doors on the downtown Albany arena for the Saints this season.

Coyle would finish a perfect, five-for-five shooting line from beyond the arc Thursday, setting new career-high-totals in three-pointers made, points, and even blocks – with two.

“My teammates were getting me open shots and I saw the first one go in, so I felt good for the next couple,” Coyle said on his offensive outing, Thursday. “We ran some different actions and they found me in the right spot and I was able to knock them down.”

Siena sophom*ore guard Michael Eley would not have such a kind shooting night, in what was also his own return from a three-game, injury absence. Eley, who has missed a total of 13 games this season, shot just 2-13 from the field, going for eight points, as well as three turnovers.

“A lot of those shots, he usually makes those,” Maciariello said. “I thought Michael did a good job and I told him, ‘You got to continue to practice hard and keep working; that’s what it’s about.'”

The performance from Coyle and lack-there-of from Eley in the final box score comes with the Saints still playing shorthanded, minus a trio of guards due to injuries, in Michael Evbagharu, Sean Durugordon, and Zek Tekin. Each of the three have now missed all of the team’s last four games, with Durugordon having not played in the last five and Evbagharu in the last 11.

With just one game remaining on the regular season schedule, before Siena heads to Atlantic City, New Jersey, to compete in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Championship Tournament next week, Maciariello was asked if he expects any of his injured-trio back before, or during, postseason play:

“I’ll have to ask the medical team. I know Michael will be back and then I think with the other two, I got to check with the ‘doc’ and the medical team.”

Lazar would go scoreless in the emotional affair, in which the program honored both he and senior manager Michael ‘Scribbs’ McLoughlin with a pregame ceremony, but would certainly let his presence be known across his career-high, five minutes played. Starting the game, Lazar would pull down a pair of rebounds, including one on the offensive glass, and even force an early turnover by the Purple Eagles, right off the opening tip.

Playing out the final 20 seconds of the game, for his first playing time since the first half, Lazar would hoist a three-pointer for just his third career attempt from the field but would miss off the iron in his chance at first career points.

“We wanted him to score on senior night, obviously, but he came out and set the tone defensively right away,” said Coyle on Lazar, “he got some deflections, got some rebounds, got some extra-possessions, so he did a really good job.”

Next up, Siena will finish the regular season with a 1 p.m. clash in New Rochelle, NY, versus rival Iona (14-16).

End-of-season standings and conference tournament seeding will be at play across all five games in the MAAC on Sunday, but for Siena, the outcomes are quite simple. With a 3-16 record in conference play, Siena currently resides in last place and with another loss on Sunday, in line for the eleventh-seed in Atlantic City, meaning the team would have to play in the final game, of six across both the men’s and women’s tournament, at Jim Whelan Boardwalk Hall, on Tuesday, March 12. That game is slated for a 9:45 p.m. start, but while late, would also mean an extra day off for the winner, before the quarterfinal round.

If Siena were to win Sunday, the team would also need a loss from the Manhattan Jaspers (4-15 MAAC), who play Canisius (12-17; 7-12 MAAC) on Sunday at 4 p.m., to climb up to the 10th seed in the tournament – meaning a projected 7:30 p.m. tip-time on Tuesday night, but no day off for the winner before the next game, Wednesday.

“Us playing well, sharing the ball, and staying connected is more important to me and having a good day of rest, recovery, and mindfulness tomorrow and then competing as hard as we can and giving it our all on Saturday,” Maciariello said of the seeding-possibilities. “But to me, I could care less what place we finish. It’s about playing good basketball and being ready to go no matter what time it is.”

—

Niagara 66, Siena 59

NU;26;40;— ;66

SC;22;37;— ;59

Purple Eagles- Obioha 15pts, 8reb, ast; 6pts, 2reb, 2ast; Bumbalough 2pts, 2reb, 4ast; Marble II 3pts, 4reb; Bullock 2pts, 3reb, 2ast; Tucker 9pts, 2reb; Obeng-Mensah 4pts, 5reb, ast; Henderson II 11pts, 2reb, ast; Bayless 14pts, 2reb. TEAM: 66pts, 30reb, 11ast.

Saints- Eemjuru 14pts, 10reb; Ojo 2pts, 2reb; Lazar 3rebs; Winters 4pts, ast; Courtney reb, 4ast; Coyle 19pts, 5reb, ast; Smith 5pts, reb, 4ast; Gribben 7pts, 3reb; Eley 8pts, 4reb, 2ast. TEAM: 59pts, 31reb, 12ast.

Halftime- NU, 26-22.

3-point Field Goals- SC 8 (Coyle 5, Gribben, Smith Eley), NU 5 (Tucker 3, Erving 2).