Upstart Saints rally past American to claim first 3-0 November start in 21 Years

LOUDONVILLE, NY (NEWS10) – Siena Basketball is off to its first 3-0 November start in 21 years. The resilient Saints rallied with a decisive 19-3 run during crunch time to defeat American 74-66 at MVP Arena.

Gerry McNamara became the first head coach in 42 years to start his Siena (3-0) tenure with three consecutive wins thanks to a fellow Syracuse import. Peter Carey poured in a career-high 16 points on 7-8 shooting while adding six blocks for the Saints, who last opened non-conference play with three consecutive wins during the 2003-04 season. Siena began the 2020-21 COVID-impacted campaign with six straight January victories while playing an exclusive schedule of MAAC opponents.

Patriot League Preseason Player of the Year Matt Rogers scored a game-high 26 points for American (1-2) which returns seven of their top-nine scorers from a team predicted to finish second in their conference.

The Saints started out gangbusters in their final performance in front of the home faithful for the next five weeks. Siena opened a perfect 11-11 from the field, fueling what ultimately became as much as a 15-point first half lead at 34-19 with 5:31 remaining.

But the Eagles responded with the final 14 points of the stanza – including a game-tying three from Wyatt Nausadis at the buzzer – to draw even at 36-all at the break.

American ultimately scored 17 unanswered points bridging the halves to take their first lead of the evening on the first possession of the final stanza. The Eagles led for the majority of the first 10 minutes of the second half, albeit by no more than a modest five points on several occasions, the final of which was at 56-51 with 8:23 left.

But if one thing can be said about the early part of the McNamara Era, these Saints won’t go down without a fight. And their resiliency, an embodiment of their head coach, made McNamara the program’s first leader to begin his tenure 3-0 since John Griffin in 1982.

Siena rallied with their decisive 19-3 run spanning 6:55, capped by another clutch three from Brendan Coyle to go ahead 70-59 with just 1:10 remaining. The junior captain previously hit the game-tying three to send Friday’s win at Bryant to overtime, before knocking down the go-ahead triple in the extra session. The Saints, who misfired on their first five three-point attempts of the evening, went a perfect 4-4 from distance during the decisive stretch.

Coyle finished with 16 points on 5-7 shooting including 3-5 from three for Siena which shot 55% from the floor.

MAAC Player of the Week Justice Shoats, who was also honored as one of just five Division I players nationally by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association as an Oscar Robertson National Player of the Week earlier in the day, paced the Saints with 18 points off the bench. Shoats added six assists and three steals while drawing nine fouls for Siena which earned a 25-12 advantage in free throw attempts.

Colin Smalls added 11 points for the Eagles who were 9-18 from three.

The Saints will now go 35 days between games at MVP Arena, playing their next seven away from home. The stretch starts however with their shortest trip, a trek across town in a quest to reclaim the Albany Cup. Siena battles rival UAlbany Saturday at 7 p.m. at Broadview Arena.