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One Capital Region Division I basketball team stayed on its path to a regular-season conference championship last week, while another saw its title hopes dim.
The UAlbany women beat both UMBC and Maine last week, keeping the Great Danes in control of the America East title hunt, while the Siena men’s loss to Quinnipiac greatly damaged the Saints’ hopes of winning the regular-season MAAC championship. Meanwhile, the UAlbany men snapped their nine-game losing streak by beating UMBC before a loss at Maine, while the Siena women lost to MAAC leader Iona before bouncing back with a dominant road win over Marist.
This week, the Siena men have a crucial road trip to Rider and Iona on Friday and Sunday, while the UAlbany men play their home finale Saturday against NJIT. On the women’s side, UAlbany wraps up its regular-season slate Saturday at NJIT, while Siena plays its final home game of the year on Saturday against Quinnipiac.
Michael Kelly, Adam Shinder and Will Springstead cover college basketball for The Daily Gazette, and each week set the scene for the upcoming action.
AWARD WINNERS
UAlbany had a pair of weekly honorees in Kayla Cooper from the women’s team and Jonathan Beagle from the men’s program.
Cooper was named the America East Women’s Basketball Player of the Week for the second week in a row and third time overall this season, putting up 18 points, 11 rebounds and three assists per game as the junior led the Great Danes to crucial wins over UMBC and Maine.
Beagle won his eighth America East Men’s Basketball Rookie of the Week award, passing the program record of seven rookie of the week honors set by Jon Iati in 2003-04. Beagle had a monster week, averaging 17 points and 14 rebounds in UAlbany’s two games. He had a 16-point, 15-rebound effort last Wednesday as the Great Danes snapped their nine-game losing streak by beating UMBC, and followed that up with 18 points and 13 boards on Saturday against Maine.
TAKEAWAYS FROM THE LAST WEEK
THE SIENA MEN NO LONGER CONTROL THEIR OWN DESTINY
Heading into last Friday’s game against Quinnipiac, Siena trailed Iona and Rider in the MAAC standings, but with a head-to-head win over both of those teams already this season, the Saints had the inside track to the regular-season conference title if they were able to win out. A first-half flop led to a 66-63 loss to Quinnipiac, and while two Rider losses over the weekend actually improved Siena’s spot in the league from third to a tie for second, the Saints are now two games back of Iona with four games remaining before the conference tournament in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
THE UALBANY WOMEN PICKED UP TWO IMPORTANT WINS
The Great Danes topped UMBC 74-67 without Morgan Haney and negotiating foul trouble, then avenged an earlier loss to Maine by beating the Black Bears 53-50, despite being down five points with four minutes left. UAlbany is guaranteed to finish either first or second in the regular season.
EACH GAME IS ITS OWN DEAL
The Siena women earned a 28-point win Saturday against Marist, two days after the club lost by 27 at Iona. The Gaels made nearly an all-time record percentage of shots from the field at 75.5%, then the Red Foxes managed only 23% shooting accuracy against the Saints. Those two games followed a Siena win that saw the Saints commit 34 turnovers and need a half-court shot at the buzzer to beat Niagara.
QUESTIONS FOR WHAT’S AHEAD
THE SIENA MEN ARE TIED FOR SECOND IN THE MAAC HEADING INTO THIS WEEKEND’S TRIP TO IONA AND RIDER. WHERE WILL THEY BE IN THE STANDINGS AFTER THE TRIP?
Shinder: They’ll still be tied for second, but they’ll have the tiebreaker over Rider locked up. To put that a little more simply, I think Siena beats Rider on Friday, then loses to Iona on Sunday, while Rider bounces back and beats Mount St. Mary’s to close the weekend. That’d leave both teams at 12-6 heading into the MAAC’s final week of regular-season play, but with the Saints holding the edge thanks to a regular-season sweep of the Broncs.
Springstead: I, too, say they’ll be tied for second, in the same scenario Shinder explained, for a few reasons. One, they’ll have had some practice time and be ready for what Rider brings. I fear, though, that Rider will take a physical toll on Siena, and that may show against an Iona team that seems to have found some rhythm. Also, in the back of their heads, they don’t want to lose both and be tied in the standings with Quinnipiac (assuming it beats Manhattan Sunday), which just beat them.
Kelly: Alone in second place. I’m not sure if that means Siena pulls off a 2-0 weekend or if Rider goes 0-2, but — somehow, some way — the Saints head into March alone in second place, which is where I see Siena finishing the MAAC season.
HOW MANY MORE GAMES DO THE UALBANY MEN WIN THIS SEASON?
Kelly: I’ll go with one, which means the Great Danes top NJIT this weekend before closing their season at 8-23 with a loss to Vermont next week. Heading into these final two games, UAlbany is 5-22 against Division I foes in what’s arguably the program’s worst Division I season.
Springstead: I think one, and it’ll be NJIT at home on Saturday. Last home game of the year, weekend, “let’s give the home crowd something to hang onto” will feed the team. But Vermont, league clinched-be-darned, will not let UAlbany come into its house and win.
Shinder: I’ll make it unanimous and go with one as well. The Great Danes lost by seven at NJIT in January in a game where they were down to just seven active players, a fuller roster and home-court advantage should swing things this time. But, I’d be stunned — shocked, even — if they went out next week and upset Vermont to close things out. A rough year ends at 8-23.
THE SIENA WOMEN HAVE HAD EIGHT PLAYERS LEAD THE TEAM IN SCORING IN GAMES THIS SEASON. LOOK INTO YOUR CRYSTAL BALLS. WHO WILL HAVE THE MOST POINTS VERSUS QUINNIPIAC?
Springstead: So, Teresa Seppala led the Saints with 17 points in their first go-around with Quinnipiac, but oh, if it were only that simple with this team. So you can’t figure it that way. Also, with the exception of a four-game run at the top spot for Seppala, rarely has anyone led the team for more than a game or two. Quinnipiac presents problems inside, so I’m going with a guard. I’ll say Ahniysha Jackson.
Kelly: After missing some time, Valencia Fontenelle-Posson has been working back to form and is the pick here for me. She’s now registered double-digit scoring in the team’s last three games, and had a team-high 17 points in just 19 minutes against Marist.
Shinder: Seppala and Anajah Brown are Siena’s most consistent sources of offense, and Elisa Mevius has had some of the most explosive games, so I’m going to go with … none of the above. I’ll take Emina Selimovic, who’s been in double figures in three of her past four games. But, the way the Saints’ season has gone, the best way to predict this might be to toss the whole roster into a randomizer and see what name gets flung out. The randomizer agrees with Mr. Kelly, by the way.
NUMBERS TO KNOW
52.5
The difference in shooting percentage for the last two opponents of the Siena women’s basketball program. After Iona made a best-of-the-season 75.5% of its shots against Siena last Thursday, the Saints held Marist to 23% from the floor Saturday. Siena, as one might expect, lost to Iona and defeated Marist.
46.4
3-point shooting percentage of Siena’s Andrew Platek, who leads the MAAC in that category.
24
Conference rookie of the week honors earned by area freshmen this season. Thirteen of those come on the men’s side, with eight wins from UAlbany’s Jonathan Beagle in the America East and five from Siena’s Michael Eley in the MAAC. On the women’s side, Siena teammates Teresa Seppala (7) and Elisa Mevius (4) have dominated the MAAC Rookie of the Week honor.
‘THEY SAID IT’
“Time is ticking. We only have a few more games left, and we’ve got to get ourselves into gear going into Atlantic City.”
— Graduate student Andrew Platek after the Siena men’s basketball team’s loss Friday to Quinnipiac.
“We’re not good enough to think we can just show up, on national television, and not play Siena basketball for 40 minutes [and win]. We played it for about 16 minutes in the second half, and it was almost good enough to come back and win. But, you know what, if this was Atlantic City, we’re going home. That’s it.”
— Siena men’s head coach Carmen Maciariello after the loss Friday to Quinnipiac.
“She was just like . . . little Bambi with tears in her eyes. And now she makes me so proud that I’m the one that has tears in my eyes every time I see the woman she’s grown into: calm and confident and well-adjusted.”
— UAlbany women’s coach Colleen Mullen, contrasting Lucia Decortes’ first day on campus with how the graduate student is now.
Categories: -Sports-, College Sports, Siena College, UAlbany
