Niagara-Siena rivalry keeps getting better

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The last time the Siena Saints showed up on the Niagara Purple Eagles? schedule, it was billed as the ?MAAC game of the year.? Niagara officials held a promotional event at the Crowne Plaza Hotel on Third Street. Coach Joe Mihalich told jokes, star players Charron Fisher and Tyrone Lewis laughed, and the anticipation grew for the first Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference game of the season on ESPNU.

A rematch of last year?s thrilling MAAC final, the Jan. 11 game was as compelling as advertised for a half. As the night wore on, the Purple Eagles lost their defensive intensity, the Saints made just about every 3-pointer they tried, and the MAAC had a new front-runner.

The rematch of the rematch in this maturing rivalry is tonight in Albany, but ESPNU cameras will be in Edison, N.J., where Rider hosts last-place Saint Peter?s. News that Niagara-Siena II will air locally on Time Warner Cable Channel 13 was meekly announced on Thursday.

Not only was there no formal press conference this week, but Niagara players were unavailable for after-practice interviews, as is customary.

Don?t believe the lack of hype.

Tonight?s game is just as much the MAAC game of the year ? until next week, when the entire league convenes at the Albany Times-Union Center to battle for the league?s one and only bid to the NCAA Tournament. Niagara (18-8, 11-5) and Siena (19-9, 11-5) are among five teams hoping to secure the top seed in the conference tournament.

Niagara controls its championship destiny. Should it defeat Siena tonight and then beat Canisius in Sunday?s sold-out home finale, the Purple Eagles will win tie-breakers over Rider and Loyola, who are both currently 11-5 in conference, and have more wins than Siena and Fairfield.

A weekend sweep would allow the defending champions to enter the tournament with a win over every other team in the MAAC. Otherwise, Niagara may have to face the one team it could not defeat in the regular season, Siena, on its home floor in the conference tournament.

The Purple Eagles have won four straight, most recently a down-to-the-wire triumph over Appalachian State on Stanley Hodge?s buzzer-beating 3-pointer. Siena has lost its last two conference games, but is coming off a convincing win at Boise State.

Niagara must find a way to defend a Siena team that scored 94 points in the first meeting at Taps Gallagher Center. Niagara has held the rest of its visitors to less than 72 points, on average.

?We have to guard them,? Mihalich said. ?I don?t know how we?re going to do it, but we have to.?

 

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Siena and Niagara, on Senior Day
by Pete Iorizzo, Albany Staff writer

Here?s the blog preview ?


Siena (17-10, 11-5): So. G Ronald Moore, 5-11 (9.1 ppg, 5.3 apg); Jr. G Kenny Hasbrouck, 6-3 (15.4 ppg, 2.9 rpg); So. F Edwin Ubiles, 6-7 (17.4 ppg, 4.0 rpg); Jr. F Josh Duell, 6-7 (5.0 ppg, 3.0 rpg); So. F Alex Franklin, 6-5 (14.5 ppg, 7.9 rpg).

Niagara (18-8, 11-5): Fr. G Anthony Nelson, 6-11 (6.0 ppg, 5.2 apg); So. G Tyrone Lewis, 5-11; (15.9 ppg, 5.1 rpg); Sr. G Stanley Hodge, 6-1 (13.3 ppg, 5.6 rpg); Sr. G Charron Fisher, 6-4 (27.6 ppg, 9.1 rpg); Jr. C Benson Egemonye, 6-10 (9.1 ppg, 6.7 rpg).

Matchup to watch: Charron Fisher vs. Alex Franklin, et al.

Fisher, the leading scorer in the country with 27.6 points per game, takes about a third of Niagara?s shots. But more challenging than the sheer number is the varied means through which they come.

Fisher, a 6-foot-4, 230-pound bull of a forward, can post up, take defenders off the dribble and shoot 3s. In fact, he?s fired ? and made ? more 3-pointers than any other player on the team.

He?ll see double-teams, I?d bet.

But what makes Fisher most vexing his frequency to the free-throw line. He?s taken 275 free throws ? more than any other player in the country. Better still, he?s made 77.1 percent of him.

Franklin figures to give Fisher, not known for his defense, problems of his own. In the last meeting, a 94-84 victory that marked Franklin?s return from a back injury, Siena?s sophomore forward finished with 12 points and four rebounds in 20 minutes.

Look for both these guys to post big numbers.

Siena will win if ? it plays with energy on Senior Day.

There?s been a common refrain around the Siena camp the past couple days: Most of those around the team seem to believe if the Saints play with the kind of energy they did against Boise State they have a very good chance to win this game.

I agree.

The Saints seem to embrace high-scoring games that offer them a chance to run up and down the court. Podding styles (see Fairfield and Manhattan) and physical battles (Loyola) seem less enticing.

This one should be up and down.

That, coupled with Senior Day festivities and a very large crowd, should have the Saints plenty pumped.

Niagara will win if ? it gets a major contribution from Tyrone Lewis.

Lewis hardly was at his best the last time the teams played. He finished 3-of-13 for the field and scored just six points.

He?s a much, much better player than that ? he averages 15.9 points and 4.1 rebounds.

Siena coach Fran McCaffery was asked earlier in the week how he likes to handle these situations: Does he prefer to shut down the big scorer and allow complementary players ?i.e., Lewis ? to try to win on their own? Or does he prefer to concede some points to the scorer and shut down everyone else?

His response: ?We want to shut down everybody.?

Well, duh.

But since that?s impossible, Siena would be well served to stop Lewis from having a big game. Fisher will score by the sheer volume of shots he takes. The Saints can?t afford to allow Lewis a big game, too.