ALBANY — If the Siena men’s basketball team that showed up at MVP Arena on Friday night travels to Atlantic City in three weeks, the Saints’ season will end without a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference championship, Siena coach Carmen Maciariello said.
Fortunately for the Saints, it’s still the regular season and they have time to get their act together. But time is running out.
Quinnipiac built a 14-point halftime lead and knocked off Siena 66-63 in front of 6,315 in attendance and an ESPNU audience.
“We can’t continue to teach the same lessons over and over again,” Maciariello said. “It’s just a missed opportunity, right? … We’re not good enough to think we can just show up on national television and not play Siena basketball for 40 minutes. We played it for about 16 minutes in the second half and it was almost good enough to come back and win. But you know what? If this was Atlantic City, we’re going home.”
Siena (17-10 overall, 11-5 MAAC) fell into third place in the MAAC, 1½ games behind first-place Iona, which beat Manhattan on Friday night, and a half-game behind Rider, which had its eight-game winning streak snapped at home by last-place Canisius.
But graduate guard Andrew Platek, who scored 11 points, said the defeat did not shake his faith in Siena’s ability to win a title.
“No, our goal is and always is a MAAC championship and we’re more than good enough to do it,” Platek said. “We just have to do it our way and the Siena basketball way and we didn’t show that tonight. You’re right, time is ticking. We only have a few more games left and we’ve got to get ourselves into gear going into Atlantic City.”
The Saints, who have four regular-season games remaining, have a pivotal trip next weekend to Rider in another ESPNU game on Friday night, followed by a contest on Sunday at…
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