Siena basketball faces another America East challenge

Loudonville

Siena men's basketball coach Jimmy Patsos brought a Catholic priest with him to practice on Sunday afternoon.

No, he wasn't administering last rites on the season. After reviewing the video, Patsos said he liked what he saw from the Saints despite another loss to the University at Albany in the Albany Cup on Saturday night.

"I was proud of the way they played,'' Patsos said of the 74-69 defeat.

But there were mistakes to correct. With that in mind, Patsos invited Fr. Mark Reamer, a Siena graduate and assistant to the president, to pass along a message from that morning's Mass that cited John the Baptist.

"Let go of your sins, let go of the past, but learn from it and then go into the future," Reamer said.

The Saints (2-7) will try to heed that advice as they play another top America East team on Monday night. They travel to face the University of Vermont (6-4), the preseason favorite in the America East, UAlbany, which lost to the Catamounts in last year's championship game, was picked to come in second.

"It's a really big game and it's a really good game,'' Patsos said. "Those teams, Albany and Vermont, those are the teams we're going to have to play against to get where we want to go."

The Saints have had great trouble beating either one of them lately. They've lost six of eight to the Great Danes, including four of five during Patsos' tenure, and have been beaten by the Catamounts seven years in a row.

"I'm a competitive guy,'' Patsos said. "I want to beat them."

Siena could be walking into a charged atmosphere at Patrick Gymnasium. The Catamounts are looking to snap a three-game losing streak after falling at Northeastern on Saturday. They're playing only their second home game of the season after having nine games at road or neutral sites.

In addition, the Catamounts are dedicating their court in honor of retired coach Tom Brennan in a pregame ceremony. Brennan led Vermont to three straight America East titles, capped by a first-round upset of Syracuse in the 2005 NCAA Tournament.

"They're going to be fired up, but that's OK,'' Patsos said. "They'll be mad, we'll be mad."

While it's two games in three days, Patsos said he likes the fact Siena gets to play another game right away rather than linger on the UAlbany loss.

Siena sophomore guard Ahsante Shivers, who said he played "terrible" against UAlbany, said the Saints need to look ahead.

"We've got to put it behind us right now,'' Shivers sad. "We've got to figure out why we lost, evaluate it and see what went wrong and put it behind us and get ready for (Monday)."

Siena had a long video session on Sunday to review the UAlbany game before holding a relatively brief practice to prepare for Vermont.

"Really just focusing on the end of the game, where we made that run and didn't quite hold to the lead (against UAlbany),'' junior forward Evan Fisher said. "Really, just continuing to learn."

He's one of only two players on Siena's roster who have played at Patrick Gym. Junior guard Nico Clareth was the other in a 73-64 loss in Burlington two years ago.

"I think it's really cool,'' Fisher said. "It's a small gym, but they have a lot of fans. As they should, they're a really good team, really good program. It's just a fun place to play."

Vermont features 6-6 sophomore forward Anthony Lamb, who won America East Rookie of the Year and Most Outstanding Player of the conference tournament last year. Vermont won a recruiting battle with Siena to get Lamb, a Rochester native who played for the Albany City Rocks travel team.

The Catamounts have four players with a scoring average in double figures.

Shivers noted Vermont didn't lose a conference game last season.

"I know they won a lot of games (29) last year,'' Shivers said. "They're a pretty good team. They are going to be in the (America East) finals, so we're going to gameplan for them and figure out a way to win."

Siena and Vermont are in the last year of their contract, and it's unclear whether they'll continue the series.

msingelais@timesunion.com • 518-454-5509 • @MarkSingelais