Men’s basketball earns crucial road victory at Siena

By Andrew Nowel, Sports Reporter

With their backs against the wall, the men’s basketball team wasn’t ready to be crushed by the fastly approaching elimination boulder that seemed to loom on the horizon this past weekend. On Sunday, the Griffs kept the boulder on the cliff with a victory over the Siena Saints.

Heading into the matchup on a eight-game losing streak, the Griffs made their shots early on to take a commanding lead. In the first six minutes, junior guard Paul McMillan IV led the Griffs to a 10–6 advantage and they built the lead to 19–9 in the next couple of minutes. The Saints worked the score back to a tie with three minutes left in the first half, but the Griffs went on a 12–2 run to end the half with a 37–25 lead.

After a relatively normal first half in total scoring, the second half saw no defense from either team as the Saints would win the half 61–56. However, with the run going into halftime, the Griffs held the lead and won 93–88. McMillan earned 21 points in the victory, his seventeenth 20+ game of the season. Canisius head coach Jim Christian commented about the resilience of the team after the game.

“We played so much tougher than we did the other night, especially on defense,” explained Coach Christian. “We were able to get some turnovers and some opportunities in transition which built confidence for us.”

Senior guard Tana Kopa scored 18 points while redshirt sophomore guard Cam Palesse added 16 points. Sophomore forward Dylan Godfrey also notched 16 points while sophomore guard Anthony Benard scored a season-high 14 points. All in all, it was a total team effort from the Griffs.

“The key to the game was free throws,” said Coach Christian. “Even when they were scoring and coming back at the end, we were making our free throws. That’s what you have to do on the road.”

The Griffs enter the end of the week in 13th place of the MAAC, but sit only a couple games back of the 10th and final spot to go to Atlantic City. They will finish their home schedule this weekend with matchups against Manhattan and Iona, two teams that are fifth and sixth in the conference. 

With Rider sitting in the final spot currently, a win this weekend and a loss from Rider keeps Canisius within striking distance as the Griffs travel down to New Jersey next weekend to take on both Rider and Saint Peter’s to finish the regular season. As the elimination boulder rolls toward Canisius, the Griffs look to avoid being crushed and head back to the shores of Atlantic City.

Photo courtesy of Tom Wolf