What a difference a year makes. After getting blown out last year, the Albany Great Danes grabbed a win Saturday night in the Albany Cup dropping the Siena Saints 88 to 82 in overtime. The win by the Danes breaks a five year losing streak to Siena.
Will Brown’s Albany squad was in control most of the game but a second half rally by the Saints sent the game into overtime. Tied with under a minute to play in overtime, UAlbany’s Mike Black (16 points, 5 assists) broke the tie with a pull up jumper and then a breakaway layup, plus a foul to tilt this one towards the Great Danes.
Albany spent the night looking good on offense lead by senior guard Tim Ambrose (27 points, 7 rebounds) and Logan Aronhalt (24 points, 5 rebounds) as they improve to 4-5 on the season.
Siena, who falls to 2-5 on the season, received another huge game from Ryan Rossiter (28 points and 13 rebounds). The Saints, who lost Owen Wignot to injury in the first half, had freshman Trenity Burdine breakout with 16 points.
Mitch Buonaguro’s team will face MAAC Conference preseason favorite Fairfield next Friday while UAlbany will travel to Yale Monday night.
Observations:
When UAlbany has their three guards healthy, they get anything from their inside game like they did with Blake Metcalf (11 points, 4 rebounds) they are much improved on offense.
Turnovers continue to haunt the Siena offense. Albany built their lead in the first half on a number of Saint turnovers.
Clarence Jackson struggled shooting 4-16 from the field. He continues to be streaky, when he’s good, he is good and when he is off, it takes a lot of shots for him to get his points.