ALBANY — The Siena men’s basketball team trailed by two points with 3:39 to play. The Saints held Manhattan scoreless for the rest of the game.
Siena still lost.
It was that kind of Senior Night for the Saints, who continued their late-season free-fall with a 67-66 loss to the Jaspers before a crowd of 6,706 in Thursday’s home finale at MVP Arena.
The Saints (17-13 overall, 11-8 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference) lost their fourth straight game and their sixth in their past eight contests. Entering Saturday’s regular-season finale at Saint Peter’s, Siena still hasn’t clinched a first-round bye in next week’s league tournament in Atlantic City, N.J.
“Yeah, it would have been great to have (the seniors) ride off into the sunset and we win and they play well,” Siena coach Carmen Maciariello said. “But it’s a team game and I thought guys picked each other up.”
Siena’s five available seniors, who all started, scored a combined 17 points on 8-for-27 shooting with eight turnovers.
“Definitely tough,” graduate forward Michael Baer said. “Would have been nice to kind of end this on a win, especially with everyone having their families here. Got to try to get a win on Saturday at Saint Peter’s.”
Instead, sophomore guard Javian McCollum and freshman guard Michael Eley shouldered the load. McCollum broke out of his recent shooting slump to score 30 points, the first 30-point game by a Saint since Jalen Pickett had 46 points in a triple-overtime loss to Quinnipiac in 2019.
“Just constantly staying in the gym this whole week, leading up to this game,” McCollum said. “I was just in the gym with coach Greg (Fahey), just getting up shots, working on my game, because I didn’t feel like myself. I think that led to it, and then just playing with confidence.”
Eley added 17 points and gave Siena its final lead and…
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