Ubiles, Saints hold off Greyhounds

PHOTOGRAPHER: Peter R. Barber

Siena’s Alex Franklin, left, is defended by Loyola’s Julius Brooks Thursday.

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Edwin Ubiles iced the win, then iced himself.

Questionable to even play because of a back injury, Siena’s senior small forward put a three-pointer through the basket with 19.1 seconds on the clock to put away pesky Loyola in a 67-61 victory at the Times Union Center on Thursday night.

The win pushed the Saints’ home winning streak to 32 games, second longest in the country behind Kansas, and moved Siena to 9-0 in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference and 16-4 overall.

Ubiles missed Monday’s win over Manhattan with a back injury he suffered in practice on Sunday.

Fifteen minutes before tipoff, he decided he was OK, having taken some practice shots during warmups, and he stayed warm, making four of five threes for 18 points, including the big one at the end. After the game, he had an ice bag wrapped to his back and another on his left shoulder, which he banged up during the game.

“I was getting treatment all day,” he said. “I didn’t do the full warmups. I kind of shot before the game to see how it felt, and I told coach I was going to give it a go.”

“He was phenomenal,” head coach Fran McCaffery said. “He came out on fire when we were struggling, and hit the biggest shot of the game.”

“I know he’s hurting,” Alex Franklin said. “It shows a lot about his character to go out and play in pain, and really hit a big shot for us.”

Siena, which held Loyola (2-7, 9-10) without a field goal in the final 7:54 and outscored the Greyhounds, 17-4, led, 62-61, with 3:35 left after Robert Olson made one of two free throws for Loyola.

The Greyhounds’ Brian Rudolph missed the front end of a one-and-one with 2:11 left.

With 56 seconds left, Siena’s Clarence Jackson missed a three from the left side, and Ryan Rossiter (12 points, 13 rebounds) tracked down the loose rebound on the other side of the basket to set up the key shot of the game.

He got it to point guard Ronald Moore, who drove the middle of the lane and passed to Ubiles on the right wing. He pump-faked as Garrett Kelly flew at him, dribbled once to his left, and drained the three to make it 65-61.

“I try to get the rebound, obviously, because . . . that’s the normal thing to do,” Rossiter said with a chuckle. “I was able to tip it away from one of the guys, I’m not sure who, and tried to tip it in a direction where I was able to get it, and it worked out.”

“Ubiles hit a big shot, but I have to go home and live with the fact that we were down one, and didn’t get a rebound,” Loyola head coach Jimmy Patsos said. “We ran out of gas, because the last eight minutes, we couldn’t make a field goal. Him [Rossiter] getting the rebound was as big as Ubiles’ shot fake.”

Rossiter, the leading rebounder in the MAAC, had his 10th double-double of the season, and fifth straight.

“He just seems to always come up with the big rebound when we need it,” McCaffery said.

As big as Ubiles’ shot was, the Saints might not have been in a position to win if not for Franklin’s second half. He scored two points in the first half, and finished with 22, including two free throws with 9.8 seconds left to produce the final score.

Shaking off an almost invisible first half, he took it to the basket with renewed ferocity, slamming one hard to give the Saints a 44-42 lead with 13:35 left.

He followed with two hard drives to his left, drawing a foul and making the free throw both times.

J’hared Hall made a three to give Loyola a 55-50 lead, though, with 9:09 left. Rudolph’s jumper made it 57-50 with 7:54 left, and that was the Greyhounds’ last basket.

Franklin, who was 10-for-12 from the free-throw line, scored inside on a feed from Rossiter from the baseline, and added a left drive on a three-on-two from Ubiles to make it 57-54.

Rossiter tracked down a loose offensive rebound and put it back to tie it at 60-60 with 4:13 left, and it got loud in the arena after Ubiles rebounded a Loyola miss, leading to two free throws by Franklin and a 62-60 lead with 3:35 left.

“I haven’t seen him play like that,” McCaffery said of Franklin “Maybe the Mount St. Mary’s game, he had a similar half and did the same thing in the second half. He couldn’t get settled down, he was fumbling the ball, couldn’t get anything to drop. He had one or two rebounds at halftime . . . it wasn’t like him. You knew he was going to play better.”

“Due to my injury and Clarence not being able to catch on fire, he went out there and took over the game for a good spurt,” Ubiles said. “Coach just kept calling the same play over and over.”

“I was pretty frustrated in the first half,” Franklin said. “Anytime things aren’t going the way you plan them out to be, you’re going to get frustrated, but I knew the second half would be a new opportunity.”

NOTEBOOK

Sophomore guard Kyle Downey, who broke his foot in practice on Tuesday, was at the game on crutches with a boot on his foot. He’s scheduled for surgery today.

LOYOLA (61)

Walker 5-8 1-2 13, Brooks 3-5 0-0 6, Hall 5-13 0-0 13, Olson 0-3 3-4 3, Rudolph 6-13 1-3 13, Winbush 0-1 0-0 0, Lewis 0-2 0-0 0, Wright 1-2 0-0 2, Kelly 4-6 0-0 11, Kelly 4-6 0-0 11, Ivis 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 24-53 5-9 61.

SIENA (67)

Ubiles 6-10 2-2 18, Rossiter 6-10 2-2 12, Jackson 1-10 0-0 2, Moore 2-10 2-2 7, Franklin 6-11 10-12 22, Anosike 0-1 0-0 0, Wignot 2-6 0-0 6. Totals: 22-55 16-18 67.

Halftime: Loyola 36, Siena 31. Three-point goals: Loyola 8-17 (Walker 2-3, Hall 3-6, Olson 0-1, Rudolph 0-1, Lewis 0-1, Kelly 3-5); Siena 7-21 (Ubiles 4-5, Jackson 0-7, Moore 1-4, Wignot 2-5). Rebounds: Loyola 30 (Brooks 6); Siena 33 (Rossiter 13). Assists: Loyola 14 (Rudolph 7); Siena 13 (Moore 7). Total fouls: Loyola 15; Siena 13. Fouled out: Wright. Attendance: 6,653.