Saints march all over Marist at McCann

The Siena Saints continued their steamroll through the MAAC conference on Saturday, defeating Marist 79-60 at the McCann center. The victory marked Siena's thirteenth consecutive win, and Marist's tenth consecutive loss. For the second time this season, Marist has lost 10 consecutive games.

Saints forward Alex Franklin dominated in the paint. Franklin scored 22 points on 8-for-9 shooting, and grabbed eight rebounds. Forward Ryan Rossiter recorded a double-double, hitting all six of his shot attempts, scoring 16 points and pulling down 10 rebounds.

Korey Bauer led the Red Foxes with 18 points on 8-for-13 shooting. Bauer has led Marist in scoring for three of the last four games and leads the team in minutes per game.

"As the season's gone on, the more minutes I'm playing, I just feel more relaxed every game," Bauer said.

Junior forward Daye Kaba added a career high 17 points on 7-for-11 shooting
"I was just trying to be aggressive," Kaba said. "I feel like the last couple games, I've been kind of timid."

Siena point guard Ronald Moore had 11 assists against two turnovers. Marist freshman point guard Devin Price had 7 assists and just one turnover.

The Red Foxes fell to 1-21 overall and 1-11 in the MAAC, while Siena remained undefeated in the conference (12-0) and improved their overall record to 19-4.
In a season where slow starts have been characteristic, the Red Foxes kept it close for entire first half.

"For us to have a young team, we handled their pressure very, very well," coach Chuck Martin said.

Siena created some separation between the teams when senior and Poughkeepsie High School graduate Edwin Ubiles came off the bench mid-way through the first half.

Ubiles scored seven consecutive points, giving the Saints a 29-17 advantage with 6:29 left in the first half.

A jump shot from freshman forward Rob Johnson just before halftime cut the lead to seven. However, Ubiles hit a jump shot of his own at the buzzer to extend Siena's lead to 39-30.

Typically a starter, Ubiles had 15 points in 23 minutes. Recently, he was sidelined by a back injury.

"I'm just excited to be down here and be able to play in front of some of my hometown fans," Ubiles said.

Kaba scored five consecutive points to start the second half. Marist got as close as four in the second half when freshman guard Candon Rusin had a steal and a breakaway layup to make the score 41-37 in favor of Siena.

The Saints answered with a 10-0 run of their own, capped off by a three-pointer by forward Clarence Jackson.

"They know how to win, so they understand runs," Martin said. "You make a run at them, they don't panic. You hit some shots, they've got composure about themselves and hit back."

Marist hit 46 percent of their shots, but ultimately couldn't keep up with Siena, who hit over 60 percent.

Although Marist responded better to the trap than in recent games, Siena made them work and succeeded in wearing them down. Consequently, when Marist did successfully advance the ball, Siena was able to limit the dribble drive offense.

"If you watch all their games, they do the same thing all the time," Siena coach Fran McCaffery said.

McCaffery recognized that Marist has a quick and talented lineup that simply lacks size and experience.

"I think it's a team that, while they're struggling right now, has to be happy with, in particular, their freshman class," McCaffery said. "That's a very good class Chuck brought in here, and those guys are getting great experience. They're going to be so much better next year."

Unfortunately for Marist, there are still some games to play this year. The Siena loss was not their only 19-point defeat of the week. Last Thursday, the Red Foxes fell 61-42 to the Iona Gaels in a game which Marist shot under 33 percent.

Marist will return to action on Friday with a nationally-televised game at conference rival Manhattan. The Red Foxes defeated Manhattan on Jan. 2 for their only win. The contest will air on ESPNU and will tip off at 9 p.m.