Siena senior forward Alex Franklin scored a game-high 26 points, junior forward Ryan Rossiter posted 15 points and a career-high 17 rebounds and guard Clarence Jackson chipped in 16 points as the visiting Saints defeated Canisius College 74-57 Sunday afternoon in the Koessler Athletic Center. The win improves Siena to 22-5 overall and 15-1 in the MAAC, while the Golden Griffins slipped to 12-15 overall and 7-9 in the league.

For Canisius, senior guard Bob Bevilacqua came off the bench to score a career-high 17 points after he went 6-for-12 from the field and 5-for-9 from 3-point range. Fellow senior Frank Turner scored 15 points and was credited with nine assists in the loss, as the team shot 37.1 percent from the field, 36 percent from behind the arc and a season-low 28.6 percent from the free-throw line after going 2-for-7 for the contest.

Siena used two key runs in the game to get away from Canisius. In the closing moments of the first half, the Saints went on an 8-0 run over a span of 4:32 to turn a 26-26 game into a 34-26 lead. Reserve guard Kyle Griffin got that scoring run started with a 3-pointer from the top of the key, and Rossiter turned an offensive rebound into a layup with 3:21 left to give Siena a 31-26 hold. After Canisius missed a 3-point try on the ensuing possession, forward O.D. Anosike scored a traditional three-point play with a dunk and a free throw with 2:16 left before the half. Canisius closed out the first stanza without a field goal for a 4:51, a drought that continued into the second half as the Saints pushed their margin to 12 at 40-28 on a layup by Franklin with 18:04 left in regulation time.

The Saints' lead hovered around 12 points for close to five minutes before the Griffs made a charge, cutting the deficit to seven points at 51-44 thanks to five-straight points in 43 seconds after a Bevilacqua 3-pointer and a Turner layup. But the Saints would end the Griffs' chances with their next run, a 9-0 spurt over 2:03, with Rossiter scoring seven of those nine points for the visitors.

"I thought against a team like that with all of those weapons, we cut it to [seven] and we just ran out of gas," Canisius head coach Tom Parrotta said. "They have a lot of answers, and we had some answers there in the second half to get it close, but it showed that we really ran out of gas. You try and counter it as much as possible, but when you start to lose legs a bit, it's hard. They went on one of their mini-runs that they do so well and it just kind of zapped us."

Franklin scored his 26 points after he went 11-for-16 from the field and 4-for-7 from the free-throw line in 36 minutes. He also added seven rebounds, two assists and two blocks to his final stat line. Rossiter, who entered the game as the only player in the MAAC to average a double-double, had 11 boards at hafltime and finished the contest with an assist and a block. The win for Siena, which shot 54.4 percent from the field as a team, was its 10th straight over the Griffs.

Tomas Vazquez-Simmons had eight points, seven rebounds and two blocks for the Griffs, while fellow junior Julius Coles added eight points and four boards to the losing effort. Canisius turned the ball over 10 times compared to Siena's 14, but the Saints ended the day with a 43-27 advantage on the glass and a 54-20 margin on points scored in the paint.

Canisius will close out the home portion of the 2009-10 season Saturday, Feb. 20, when the team plays host to James Madison on Senior Night. The meeting between the Griffs and the Dukes will be the first in program history, and tipoff in the Koessler Athletic Center is set for 7 p.m.

Game Notes: Siena now leads the all-time series with Canisius by a 47-26 count... Turner's layup at the 15:31 mark of the first half pushed him over the 1,000-career point mark in MAAC games... Turner joins former Griffs Craig Wise and Javone "Bam" Moore as the only three players in school history to play in 120 career games... Bevilacqua's previous career high for points was 16, which he scored at Loyola Feb. 28, 2008... He also matched a career-high with five makes from behind the 3-point line... Elton Frazier's dunk to open the scoring in the first half was the 45th dunk of his career.