The Siena Saints (15-4, 8-0) face the Loyola Greyhounds (9-9, 2-6) at 7pm in the Times Union Center on Thursday night.  The Saints are on a 9 game winning streak, the longest during Fran McCaffery’s tenure, and they try to extend the second longest home court winning streak in the country which stands at 31, behind Kansas who has won 52 in a row at Phog Allen Fieldhouse.

The focus in this game is not exactly who is going to be playing Thursday night, but who isn’t.  Sophomore guard Kyle Downey broke his ankle on Tuesday and is out indefinitely, and Edwin Ubiles is day to day with a back injury after not playing Monday night against Manhattan.  Siena’s bench isn’t faring well either as sophomore guard Kyle Griffin is dealing with lingering knee issues after off-season surgery, freshman guard Jonathan Breeden is nursing migraines, and freshman guard Denzel Yard is still not playing due to academic reasons.

Loyola is also starting shorthanded after junior guard Jamal Barney left the program during the last week for personal reasons, and senior guard and leading scorer Brett Harvey is day to day with a shoulder injury after missing time due to illness.  Without Harvey the Greyhounds lost to the Saints on their home court earlier in the month by 20 points due mostly to the inability to distribute and control the ball or stop the multiple scoring options of Siena.  Loyola doesn’t score a ton of points, averaging 62.5 per game.  If Harvey doesn’t start then Loyola will face a daunting task to beat the Saints, even with the Saints missing their leading scorer and current sixth man  – guys are going to need to step up for the Greyhounds to defeat a Siena team who isn’t at full strength.

So who fills in for the Saints?  History would say that Owen Wignot will get the start for Ubiles, as he has been given the green light twice when Ubiles has been unable to go.  Wignot has looked a little shaky of late, though – not bad per se, but he needs to find more confidence on the offensive end.  McCaffery is also on record stating that he wants to get freshman forward OD Anosike more minutes, but can’t because Ryan Rossiter and Alex Franklin are playing so well up front.  OD has put in quality minutes as a reserve, most notably on the defensive end and rebounding, and he has some good interior moves so more minutes could maybe open up a bigger offensive dimension to OD’s game.  It’s possible the coach could start OD, which would give the Saints a great size advantage up front, but again history shows that Coach Fran goes with his more experienced players.  Still, expect Anosike and freshman forward Davis Martens to log a lot more minutes on Thursday night.

KEYS TO THE GAME

• Find the Inside Man: Or, men as it were.  On Monday night against Manhattan Alex Franklin led the Saints with 23 points, and Ryan Rossiter scored 19 points and grabbed 14 rebounds.  Franklin and Rossiter were somewhat quiet at Reitz Arena earlier this month, though, as they combined for 13 points.  If the team can get the ball inside and these two continue to play to form then the Saints are going to have a great shot at winning the ball game.
• The Sharp-Shooter Cometh: Junior guard Clarence Jackson has returned to form as well, and he’s finding most of his points from outside.  He’s made 13 three-pointers in the last three games, and he ranks first in the MAAC conference in made 3′s.  If the inside-outside game is working, the Saints are a heavy favorite.
• The Freshman 15: Injuries are never a good thing, obviously, but if the Saints want to make a deep run in the conference and beyond then OD Anosike and Davis Martens are going to need to provide big minutes.  15 minutes a piece Thursday night would be great, or 15 points combined, any sort of positive production is going to help alleviate the physical woes of the team.