ALBANY, N.Y. - Siena guard Kenny Hasbrouck scored a game-high 21 points and teammate Clarence Jackson added 16 points off the bench as the host Saints defeated Canisius College 91-73 Thursday night in the Times Union Center. The win moves Siena to 17-5 overall and 11-0 in MAAC action, while the Golden Griffins dropped their second-straight game to fall to 7-14 overall and 2-9 in league play.
For the Griffs, Julius Coles scored a team-high 16 points, while Frank Turner added 15 points, six assists and six rebounds in the losing effort. Greg Logins added 13 points and was credited with a game-high eight rebounds, with Chris Gadley chipping in 11 points and four boards.
Hasbrouck scored the first 10 points of the game for Siena as the Saints took an early 10-4 lead, but the Griffs used a 10-2 run to take a 14-12 lead, capped by a drive to the bucket by Turner. From there, Canisius pushed its lead to eight at 23-15 with 11:00 left before the half thanks to a 9-3 run which was capped by a dunk by Coles. The Saints to a 30-second timeout after Coles' dunk and quickly regained the lead by outscoring the Griffs 9-0 over the next 2:09. With the game knotted at 28-28, Siena used another scoring run of 7-0 to take a 35-28 lead with 6:27 left in the first stanza.
The Blue and Gold was able to whittle Siena's cushion to just two points in the final 2:23 of the half, but Hasbrouck scored five-straight points to end the half to send Siena into the locker room up 46-39. For the half, Canisius shot 57.1 percent from the field while holding Siena to 48.1 percent from the floor, but the Saints were able to take advantage of the 23 free-throws they were granted, hitting 17 of them in the first half.
In the second half, Siena pushed its lead to 10 with a 6-2 run in the first 2:43 of the frame. Siena, which shot 64.3 percent from the field in the second half, led by as many as 28 in the second stanza as the team continued to improve on the best start in conference play since La Salle went 16-0 during the regular season in 1989-90.
“I thought we played hard in the first half and we did a good job answering their scoring runs,” Canisius head coach Tom Parrotta said. “In the second half, they started hitting shots and they were able spread us out defensively, which makes them even harder to guard. Give them credit, they are a really good team. From top-to-bottom, they are as talented as any team we've seen this season.”
Alex Franklin and Edwin Ubiles were credited with 15 points apiece in the win for Siena, which has now taken six straight from the Griffs. Ronald Moore added eight points and six assists for Siena, which closed out the night shooting 56.4 percent from the field and 73.5 percent from the charity stripe.
The Griffs will close out their four-game road swing Sunday when the team meets Rider in Lawrenceville, N.J. Tipoff is set for 1 p.m.
Game Notes: The Griffs had four players post double figures on the final stat sheet for the fifth time this season... Coles has double figures in the scoring column in 12 of the team's last 13 games... Turner's six assists leaves him two helpers shy of becoming the fifth player in school history to have 400 career assists... As a team, Canisius has 30-or more made field goals in three of the team's last four outings.
