Saints fall without Young in lineup
Top scorer misses game because of coronavirus protocols
At least the Siena women’s basketball team had something resembling a normal roster on Saturday, dressing nine players for their return to action against Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference leader Marist.
Though it was a lot better than the six they had available their last time out, the Saints were missing the one player they couldn’t afford to lose — graduate point guard Isis Young, the MAAC’S scoring leader at 19.2 points per game.
What would have been an uphill climb for a rusty team even with Young became a 69-44 blowout victory for the Red Foxes at UHY Center.
Siena women’s basketball coach Ali Jaques said Young was unable to play because of COVID -19 protocols and couldn’t elaborate because of health privacy laws.
“Well, yeah, 19 points a game would help and your point guard and your leader on
the floor was sorely missed tonight,” Jaques said. “I thought that was obvious ... We missed Ice. That was obvious. But it’s a team game and I’m proud of the players that stepped on the court and did what they did.”
The Saints were playing only their second game in 34 days because of coronavirus disruptions. They had just a halfdozen players in a 61-60 loss at Monmouth on Feb. 3 and then postponed two games at Manhattan last weekend because they didn’t have enough players to safely compete in back-toback contests.
Young and sophomore guardforward Sevval Istanbulluoglu both played against Monmouth, but were out of the lineup against Marist because of COVID -19 protocols.
“With the way the testing is in Albany County, no matter what, if there’s a positive test, you’re put away and quarantined,” Jaques said. “There’s other counties that have different rules and other counties that have different laws. That’s what we’re dealing with. So if we get unlucky and have one more positive test, I don’t know if we’d even be able to finish the season. And that’s what it is. I give our administration so much credit for doing everything they possibly can to put us in a position to stay with us and just give us a chance.”
Jaques paused to take a deep breath as she spoke, which summed up the feelings of her team, according to junior guard Margo Peterson.
“I think it’s fair to say everyone on the team, all the coaches, we’re all pretty frustrated,” said Peterson, who led all scorers with 18 points. “But it is what it is. We’re doing all the right things. We’re quarantining, we’re washing our hands, we’re doing all the little things and we’re just trying to play more games.”
The Saints (2-4 overall, 2-4 MAAC) have played only six games so far and have a rematch against Marist in Loudonville at 2 p.m. Sunday. They won’t have Young or Istanbulluoglu, whom Jaques anticipates returning early in the week. Siena has a game at Quinnipiac Wednesday.
Siena shot 53.8 percent from the field in the first quarter and trailed Marist only 18-15 at the end of one. But they shot only 12-for-45 (26.7 percent) in the final three quarters and only 4-for-22 on 3-pointers for the game. The Red Foxes outscored the Saints 19-7 off turnovers and 18-8 on second-chance points.
In their first game since Jan. 10, Siena preseason ALL-MAAC guard Amari Anthony had only three points on 1-for-8 shooting and forward Lala Watts had no points and one rebound.
“I think it’s obvious to anybody who watched the game that our timing ’s off,” Jaques said. “We haven’t played basketball in close to a month, basically, so when you’re coming out of quarantine and have one full team practice, I’m proud of what we did. We made some decent adjustments within the game. I thought our players left everything they could on the floor and we look forward to hopefully having another game tomorrow.”
Trinasia Kennedy scored 13 points to lead Marist (13-2, 11-2).