The Saints (17-4, 10-0) escape with a 66-58 victory over the Manhattan Jaspers (7-13, 2-8). Despite being down by nine points in the second half, the Jaspers fought back within one possession with less than one minute left in the game before Siena pulled away with clutch free throw shooting.

Manhattan was held without a point for a full five minutes in the first half. Kyle Griffin came off the bench to score a season high 12 points with four 3-pointers to lead the Saints to a seven point lead heading into halftime. Griffin’s 3’s turned out to be the only ones for the team for the remainder of the game.

For the majority of the second half Siena’s lead hovered around six to seven points. Alex Franklin also had a season high in points with 27, to go along with his 10 rebounds. Ryan Rossiter added 16 points and 13 rebounds as the Saints’ front court seemed to score at will. Edwin Ubiles was unable to play due to nagging injuries to his back and shoulder. Owen Wignot also left late in the game because of what appeared to be a head injury. Siena connected on 20 free throws, with the last four coming in the final seconds to seal the win.

Rico Pickett led Manhattan with 20 points, but no other player finished in double figures. With 5:27 left the Jaspers went on a 9-1 run to pull within three points. However, Manhattan’s well documented struggles in tight games plagued them again as they could only come up with one point in the final 1:35. This is the team’s fourth straight loss.