The Siena Saints and Albany Great Danes renew their rivalry Saturday night December 5th, 7:00pm at the Times Union Center.  What has become one of the most anticipated and exciting sporting events in the Capital Region is again on pace to draw a huge crowd, with ticket sales exceeding 11,000 as of yesterday.

The Saints have won seven of the last eight contests, but recent years have provided close finishes.  While the Saints have won four in a row, the margin of victory in those games did not exceed eight points, including one game decided in overtime and a thrilling one point double overtime win three years ago.  Siena is defending their home court where they have won 23 consecutive games, the nation’s fourth longest winning streak behind Kansas, Utah State, and Pittsburgh.  Saturday night will provide a difficult test against an America East opponent who has experience and senior leadership.

UAlbany is run at the point by 6′1″ senior Michael Johnson, who is averaging 9 ppg, 4 assists per game, and 3 rebounds per contest.  Johnson does a lot of things well, but his main role is to set up the two scorers on the team, junior guard Tim Ambrose and senior forward Will Harris.  Both are averaging 16 ppg, and each has the explosiveness to go off on any given night.  The rest of the team tries to fill in the gaps, but the hallmark of coach Will Brown’s teams, and what you can expect to see on Saturday night, is aggressive and hard nosed defense.  While Siena had issues finding the basket Wednesday night they are still considered an explosive offensive team, so Coach Brown will implore his players to try and shut them down while relying on Johnson to take care of the ball, and Ambrose and Harris to bear most of the scoring effort.

The Saints are trying to mend some nagging injuries, most notably to senior wingman Edwin Ubiles.  Ubiles has an aggravated knee injury that started becoming serious during the Northeastern game earlier in the season.  He was replaced in the starting lineup Wednesday night by sophomore forward Owen Wignot, who scored 7 points, grabbed 3 rebounds and had 3 blocks and a steal.  If Edwin can’t go Saturday night, expect Wignot to get the start again, with freshman forward OD Anosike the first off the bench to replace him.

Coach McCaffery will most likely go to his big men inside against UAlbany, which he wasn’t able to do against the 6′10 Derek Favors and the ACC athleticism of Georgia Tech.  Ryan Rossiter and Alex Franklin have both had excellent seasons so far, and the offense should go through them Saturday night.  Clarence Jackson, who has ably filled the scoring hole left by Kenny Hasbrouck will also be a threat to have a huge game if Rossiter and Franklin get the post game set up.  Siena most likely will not shoot as badly as they did against Tech, and while the opportunity exists that the Saints could win going away, the fact remains that this is a rivalry game, and UAlbany will always get up for what is one of the biggest games on the schedule each year for them.

KEYS TO THE GAME

Don’t let UAlbany’s 3-5 record fool you – the team can play and they will compete for the America East league title this year.  Siena must do two things to get the ‘W’ Saturday night: step up their defensive intensity, not allowing yet another team to shoot over 60% in the second half (see Temple, St. John’s, and Georgia Tech losses) and to play a full 40 minutes.  The fact that their bench is a little short, filled mostly with younger players, hinders the Saint’s ability to sub in fresh legs which leads to more minutes, and fatigue, for their starters.

The subs, in particular OD Anosike and Denzel Yard, may need to start growing up a little quicker.  While the team gets shooting guard transfer Kyle Griffen and forward Davis Martens around the turn of the New Year, there are important games on the schedule after the UAlbany game, most notably the first league contest at Iona Monday night, followed by an incredibly difficult game at Northern Iowa.  While the Saints’ three ‘up’ games are behind them, and are the only losses on the docket, the men in Green and Gold need to bring a high level of intensity every night and play 40 minutes of tenacious defense.

NOTES

• Senior point guard Ronald Moore is leading the nation in assists with 8.3 per game.  He leads Kentucky freshman John Wall who has 7.8 per game.

• Siena has been outscored 131-98 in the second half of its three losses this season.

• Clarence Jackson has led the team in scoring the last two games, and three times on the season.