An epic: Quinnipiac, Young get past Siena, Pickett

PHOTOGRAPHER: Marc Schultz

Quinnipiac won 107-100 against Siena.

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ALBANY — It was a game to remember.

Quinnipiac’s Cameron Young’s immediate reaction to it?

“I’m tired, man,” Young said with a laugh.

In a 107-100 triple-overtime win Sunday against the Siena College men’s basketball team, Young scored a MAAC-record 55 points as part of a game that saw Saints freshman Jalen Pickett deliver a career-high 46 points and 13 assists. Siena trailed 58-38 with less than 13 minutes to go in regulation, but Pickett keyed the Saints’ comeback with 32 points in the game’s final 27:39.

“Just trying to make the right play every time down the floor,” Pickett said. “They were going under [screens] and doing different things, and I felt like I was open, so I was shooting it and shooting it with confidence.”

All game, Young — whose 55 points is a single-game high in NCAA men’s basketball this season — shot it with confidence in front of a capacity crowd at Times Union Center. The likely MAAC Player of the Year scored 21 points in the first half, 15 in the second and 19 in the overtimes. The senior shot 15 of 24 from the field, 9 of 13 from 3-point territory and 16 of 20 from the foul line, plus added 10 rebounds in 54 minutes of action.

“The main thing on my mind was just trying to keep my team in the game,” Young said.

That was Pickett’s focus, too, especially after the Saints struggled to keep up with the Bobcats. Quinnipiac (9-5, 14-11) opened up a 20-point lead against Siena (8-6, 13-14) nearly midway through the second half, but that’s when Pickett went to work. After the Saints fell behind 58-38, the likely MAAC Rookie of the Year scored 17 points and dished six assists in the final 12:39 of regulation to force overtime.

“We came back,” Pickett said. “We fought as a team to get there. We were just living in the moment.”

Pickett put Siena ahead 71-70 with 1:27 to go, but Quinnipiac scored the next five points to go back ahead. After a Pickett score brought Siena within 75-73, sophomore Manny Camper recorded a steal to set up Pickett finding Camper for an overtime-forcing score with 5.1 seconds to go.

“The energy and enthusiasm we’re capable of playing with is something really special,” Siena head coach Jamion Christian said. “I really feel like we found something here today in this second half with the grittiness and the toughness we played with. We didn’t get the result we wanted. We’re certainly not happy with that, but absolutely love our team.”

Siena forced a second overtime when Pickett made a game-tying short jumper with 0.5 seconds to go. In the second overtime, it was Young’s turn to extend the game, as his 3 with 23.5 seconds to go gave him 50 points and tied the score at 93.

Both Pickett and Young scored five points in the final overtime, but Quinnipiac sophomore Rich Kelly — who scored 24 points — made the final period’s biggest shots. Kelly sandwiched a pair of 3s around a Pickett basket to put Quinnipiac up 102-97 with 46.5 seconds to go. One of Kelly’s late-game 3s came after Pickett nearly made a steal that would have led to a fast-break score.

“I was a step too late,” Pickett said.

“Oh, my god,” Quinnipiac head coach Baker Dunleavy said. “Sometimes, it’s better to be lucky than good. A deflection came right to us. I think one of our guys may have tipped the ball, which is good. We tip it, we get it and then it comes right to [Kelly] and he was ready as if we drew it up that way.”

Both Pickett and Young broke the arena scoring record previously held by Alvin Young, who scored 44 points against Siena in a 1999 game.

“[Cameron Young’s] a 6-6 guard that can do it all,” said Camper, who scored a career-high 21 points. “Score from every level.”

Pickett’s 46 points are the second-most ever for a Siena player. The Saints’ program record belongs to Doremus Bennerman, who scored 51 points in a March 1994 NIT game against Kansas State at Madison Square Garden.

“I’m not really worried about that,” Pickett said of coming close to that Siena record. “We’ve just got to find a way to win at the end.”

With the win, Quinnipiac moved into a first-place tie with Canisius, while Siena dropped into a tie for fifth. The Saints next play Tuesday at Times Union Center against last-place Saint Peter’s.

“I thought we got a really good glimpse of how good we could we could be here in that second half,” Christian said.

And everyone got a look at how far Young has come as a player. Young — a sixth-year senior — barely played two seasons ago, developed into a second-team All-MAAC selection last year and is the league’s top player this year.

“To be honest, I never even scored more than 19 points in a high school game,” Young said. “I scored 33 earlier this year, so that was my previous high.”

QUINNIPIAC

Rigoni 2-8 0-0 5, Bundu 3-4 0-0 6, Young 15-24 16-20 55, Williams 5-12 3-3 14, Kelly 9-15 2-2 24, Robinson 0-2 0-0 0, Atson 0-2 1-2 1, Marfo 0-0 2-2 2, Pickron 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 34-67 24-29 107.

SIENA

Seymour 3-7 0-0 9, Fisher 2-14 0-0 4, Degnan 4-9 4-4 15, Camper 8-14 5-6 21, Pickett 14-26 14-17 46, Smithen 2-5 0-0 5, Ratliff 0-2 0-0 0, Tchougang 0-0 0-0 0 Morastoni 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 33-77 23-27 100.

Halftime score: Quinnipiac 39, Siena 24. Three-point shooting: Quinnipiac 15-30, Siena 11-33. Rebounds: Quinnipiac 50 (Young 10), Siena 31 (Degnan 8). Assists: Quinnipiac 10 (Bundu 3), Siena 17 (Pickett 13). Turnovers: Quinnipiac 19, Siena 4. Total fouls: Quinnipiac 24, Siena 21. Fouled out: Bundu, Robinson, Camper, Smithen. Attendance: 7,146.

Reach Michael Kelly at [email protected] or @ByMichaelKelly on Twitter.