Saints advance to play Niagara

Win in quarterfinal led by Jackson, who scores 22 on her 22nd birthday

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — Birthday girl Ahniysha Jackson was the center of attention on Thursday, scoring a game-high 22 points on the day she turned 22 years old.

She even got serenaded as “Happy Birthday” was sung by the Siena pep band after an 8057 victory over Mount St. Mary’s in a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference quarterfinal at Boardwalk Hall.

“It was a great feeling,” said Jackson, a senior guard from Albany High. “I’m really blessed and I’m happy to be here.”

But it was an all-around effort from the Saints that allowed them to cruise to a commanding victory over the Mountaineers (14-17), whom Siena beat narrowly twice in the regular season.

The third-seeded Saints (18-11) are living up to the goal of wanting to play your best basketball in March as they enter a semifinal against No. 2 Niagara at 1:30 p.m. Friday. Siena is seeking its first MAAC championship game appearance since 2003.

“When you start the season, you put together a team, a roster, and then you try to mold them into something and I thought we just played really pretty at times,” Siena coach Jim Jabir said. “I thought it was really pretty basketball and I thought they were really focused and locked in.”

Siena tied its season high with 12 3-pointers in 26 attempts. Jackson was 5-for-9 from behind the arc.

Sophomore guard Teresa Seppala scored 18 points and sophomore guard Elisa Mevius came close to her second tripledouble in as many games. She even flirted with a quadrupledouble. She had 12 points, 10 assists, eight rebounds and a career-high eight steals.

Mevius ranks second in the nation in steals per game.

“We’ve been talking the last couple of days about our energy and that we have to stick together in the hard times,” Mevius said. “I think we’re just trying to be more disciplined to keep the energy up even if we do make mistakes, and just when they punch us, we punch them back.”

The Saints will play back-to