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Brendan Coyle celebrates winning the MAAC Quarterfinal against Mount St. Mary’s | Courtesy of Siena Athletics
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — Even as an experienced team with three starters that had been in this exact spot before in a tight MAAC Tournament game a year ago, it should be impossible to feel any sort of comfort level when you see your lead drifting away, and potentially your season.
It’s everything that you’ve worked for over the past 12 months since last season ended, potentially crumbling as the scoreboard reads a lead dwindling from 19 to 11 to 6 to 4 to 3 to 2….
But that was Siena. That was Gerry McNamara and his veteran group on Saturday night.
They weren’t unflappable – in fact, they were very much flapped during the second half surge by Mount St. Mary’s, but the Saints had the composure to not let that break them down, holding on to fight just one more day. One more chance to lace up the sneakers in pursuit of the dream. Siena held on 63-58 over Mount St. Mary’s to advance to the MAAC Semifinals.
It stems back to a conversation that McNamara had with Brendan Coyle, Justice Shoats, and Gavin Doty after the Saints lost to Rider in the opening round of the MAAC Tournament last season. Shoats said that McNamara promised that he’d bring in two “really good bigs,” and he brought in three frontcourt pieces in the portal in Riley Mulvey, Tassie Goodrick, and Antonio Chandler, along with freshman Francis Folefac.
But now, due to injury to Goodrick and eligibility issues with Chandler, he’s down to two of those pieces. But they’re still built for the big moment.
“BC kept saying this is what we’re built for,” McNamara said of the Mount’s second-half push to make the game close. “You spend your whole offseason trying to build a team that’s confident in themselves to win a game that’s close. If you build for it, you know there’s going to be a little more comfort in it.”
So when Siena goes 10 minutes in the second half without a field goal, and the energy is shifting towards Mount St. Mary’s in a way we saw push the Mount over the edge last season during these games, how can the Saints keep their heads in the game?
“We come into the game with every intent of a defense-first mindset,” Shoats said. “And even when we’re not making shots, if we just continue to do little things, keeping them off the offensive glass and defend well, and keep their guards out, that just shows our toughness.”
But what that explains is that despite Siena being the MAAC’s top offense, the Saints build their identity on the defensive side of the ball. It’s something that many great offensive teams do as well, but it held Siena together throughout the night.
And when situations got dire, they were rescued.
“We came up with timely shots,” McNamara said. “The post play to Francis, and he made a great pass to Coyle in the corner for three, and then Justice makes his play. It was tough to execute against (the Mount) because there was very little freedom of movement. I thought in the first half, the game was a little more open.”
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Timely shots are what made McNamara’s career as a player. It was six threes in the national championship game against Kansas in 2003. It’s the clutch performances in the 2006 Big East Tournament to lead Syracuse to four wins in four days. That’s how Orange fans remember him.
He’s imparted that onto his Siena team.
“By this time of year, the kids know, how many minutes they’ve played for me and how many tight games we’ve been in together over the last two years,” McNamara said. “There’s comfort in that.”
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