Siena held off a late surge from the University of Quebec at
Montreal (UQAM) Saturday night to win the first game of its Foreign Tour 88-78
in Montreal. Freshmen Marquis Wright (19), Javion Ogunyemi (16) and Lavon Long (13) combined to score 48
of the team's 88 points.
"I thought it was kind of a team win," head coach Jimmy
Patsos said. "We had a lot of turnovers because they were pressing us to slow
us down, and then we had to run a quick play (because of the 24-second shot clock),
but we were being aggressive and trying to make some plays. To score 88 points
and still have 25 turnovers was great for us."
Junior Evan Hymes scored the first five points of the game
to get Siena off to a fast start. Hymes finished with 16 points, four assists
and four rebounds and played almost exclusively off the ball after running the
point in his first two years with the program. Wright tied for a game high with
19 points and added six assists in 39 minutes, but he did turn the ball over
eight times.
Siena's backcourt proved some firepower, but Ogunyemi and
Long made big finishes inside to help solidify the outcome.
After Richard Addai's 4-point play cut the Siena lead (once
15 points) to just 79-78 with 1:28 to play, Long found Imoh Silas for a dunk to
ignite a 9-0 Saints' run to end the game. Long ripped a rebound and finished a
conventional 3-point play to push the lead to six with 28 seconds left.
Rob Poole rounded out Siena's five double figure scorers
with1 2 points despite missing all four of his 3-point tries.
The Saints return to action at 2 p.m. Sunday against McGill
University.