Men's Basketball Comes Up Short, 71-64, In Schools' Annual Basketball Rivalry Game

Courtesy: UAlbany Sports Information

Albany, N.Y. – Edwin Ubiles scored 23 points off the bench and Ronald Moore added 17 as Siena held off UAlbany, 71-64, in the school’s annual rivalry game on Saturday evening before 13,251 fans at Times Union Center. The Saints have won four straight in the series, including a pair of overtime decisions.

Siena (4-3) led 39-29 at halftime by shooting better than 57 percent from the field. The Saints, who won last year’s Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference championship and reached the NCAAs, pushed out to a 53-39 lead midway through the final period on a slam dunk in transition by Ubiles, who made 9-of-14 field goals.

UAlbany (5-3) would rally over the next six minutes. Billy Allen, a redshirt freshman, canned a three-point field goal from the left corner to whittle the margin under double figures. Anthony Raffa, a freshman guard who had 13 points, later converted a fastbreak layup to close the gap to six.

Virginia transfer Will Harris scored after collecting an offensive rebound to get his team with 60-55 with 4:38 remaining. The Great Danes had the ball again with a chance to get closer, but Tim Ambrose’s turnover led to Moore’s fastbreak conversion. Ubiles, a 6’7” junior, would come up with the knock-out punch when he delivered a 3-pointer from the right wing with 2:06 to play.

“We had opportunities to be successful, but we didn’t capitalize on them,” said UAlbany coach Will Brown, whose team had its five-game winning streak halted. “We were in awe of the atmosphere and Siena’s quickness in the first half and played too fast.”

The Saints, who have rebounded with two wins after suffering three tough defeats in the competitive Old Spice Classic, ran off nine unanswered to go ahead in the opening stanza. Ubiles canned back-to-back jumpers to end that outburst. Moore, a junior guard who added seven assists, advanced the lead to double digits with a basket, and his team went up by as much as 15 points in the period.

“We couldn’t make any shots from the field, from the line, from anywhere,” offered senior forward Brian Connelly, one of four Great Danes in twin figures with 12 points. “Our confidence came back and we had them on the run. It may have been a combination of nervous energy and inexperience that got us behind.”

Ambrose, a 6-foot sophomore, had 15 points and tied a career-high with nine rebounds. Harris finished with 12 points and seven rebounds for the Great Danes, who shot just 37.7 percent on 26-of-69 attempts. Siena’s Alex Franklin added nine points and eight rebounds, as his team made 50 percent from the floor.