Jan. 27, 2008

Final Stats

Alex Franklin came off the bench to lead four Saints in double figures with 17 points and Siena held Iona to just 21 second half points, rallying from a halftime deficit for the first time this season in a 64-51 win Sunday afternoon in New Rochelle.

"I thought, for the last 10 minutes, that was about as good as we could play," head coach Fran McCaffery said. "This was an important game for us."

Iona sprinted to a 14-2 lead just four minutes into play, stirring up memories of Thursday's blowout loss to Loyola in Baltimore. Siena closed the first half with a 7-0 run after trailing 30-19 with 3:36 left to get back in the game.

The Saints used another 7-0 run to tie the game at 37-37 on a Kenny Hasbrouck 3-pointer with 15:01 left. They took their first lead on Josh Duell's layup with 12:55 to go, and never trailed the rest of the way.

Franklin converted two free throws to close out an 8-0 run that made the score 50-42 with 8:49 remaining. After Iona closed to within three, 51-48, the Saints put the game away with an 11-0 spurt.

Duell scored 11 points and had five rebounds in 23 minutes off the bench. Hasbrouck shook off a 0-7 shooting performance in the first half to finish with 13 points and Edwin Ubiles had 12. Ubiles has reached double figures in all of Siena's 20 games.

Ronald Moore had four of Siena's 14 steals. It was the third straight game the Saints collected 14 steals or more. They scored 29 points off Iona's 23 turnovers.

Siena shot 55% from the field in the second half and held the Gaels to just 32%.

Devon Clarke had 14 points and eight rebounds to pace Iona.

The Saints have five days off before returning to action Saturday against Rider. The 2 p.m. tip will be nationally televised on ESPN2 at Times Union Center. The Saints and Broncs are tied atop the MAAC standings with 8-2 league records.