Will Brown wins 275th game at UAlbany

ALBANY, N.Y. >> With Joe Cremo netting 23 points, the UAlbany men’s basketball team picked up a 70-62 victory vs. UMass Lowell for Will Brown’s 275th win as head coach. UAlbany started the game focusing on play in the paint. Travis Charles drew contact twice and hit four free throws, followed by a tough jumper from David Nichols for a 6-2 lead in the opening minutes. UMass Lowell primarily looked for long range shots, leading to a 6-0 run to push ahead at 8-6. Both sides had exchanges as UAlbany made free throws and UML scores on field goals. Down 16-14 after a three, Joe Cremo led the offensive push, hitting a jumper, passing to Greig Stire for an open layup then hitting a layup himself for a 6-0 run, pushing UAlbany up 20-16 by the under-8 media timeout. Despite early foul trouble, UAlbany finished the half on a 9-2 run, completed by two scores from Stire, to lead 33-24 at the break. UAlbany continued its paint attack into the second half, as Stire and Charles led the scoring down low. They combined for the first eight points of the period for UAlbany, with the Great Danes leading 41-33 at the half’s first media. As UML went to Jahad Thomas for most of its shots, UAlbany kept the lead, with a Nichols corner three sending UAlbany up 51-41 midway through the second. UML scored the next seven points to pull within one possession. UAlbany kept matching UML baskets to hold the lead; at 57-55 UAlbany, Cremo notched a three from the corner after shaking off a defender, then Charles hit a putback to return the lead to seven at 62-55 with 3:20 left. The River Hawks got to within two possessions a couple of times, but UAlbany held the advantage with late free throws from Charles, Cremo and Nichols. UAlbany took the victory 70-62. “We needed to get back on track. We had to go small [lineup], and those guys did a good job keeping things together,” UAlbany head coach Will Brown said. “We could not open the game up, but we needed to get a win, and we did that.” UAlbany stays at home for its next game, hosting UMBC on Sunday, January 21st at 2 p.m. For ticket information for UAlbany basketball games, fans may contact the UAlbany ticket office at 518-442-DANE or ualbanysports.com/tickets.

SIENA OUTLASTS MARIST, 68-65

ALBANY, N.Y. >> Red-shirt junior guard Kadeem Smithen finished a home run inbounds pass from sophomore forward Thomas Huerter, Jr. with 11.4 seconds remaining to seal a 68-65 victory for Siena Basketball over I-87 rival Marist at the Times Union Center. Freshman guard Jordan Horn led four Saints in double figures with 15 points to go along with seasonhighs of four assists and three steals. Freshman guard Roman Penn scored 12 points for Siena (614, 2-5) which has captured 19 of the past 24 meetings against Marist (4-14, 2-4), including 10 of the last 11 in Albany. Sophomore guard Khalil Richard returned from a onegame absence due to illness to add 12 points off the bench for the Saints, which shot a solid 48% from the field including 9-22 from three-point range. David Knudsen led all scorers with 17 points, and Ryan Funk contributed 13 for the Red Foxes which have dropped nine of 10 away from McCann Arena this season. Knudsen scored 15 of his points in the first half on the strength of four triples for Marist which shot 9-13 from distance in the stanza to claim a 40-36 lead at the break. However, Siena responded with the first eight points to open the second half, and led for all but 31 seconds thereafter. After the Red Foxes rallied back within a point with 12:02 to play, the Saints rattled off 10 unanswered points to take their biggest lead of the game at 60-49 with 6:35 remaining. Freshman forward Prince Oduro, who scored all 11 of his points in the second half, tallied six during the run. Siena still maintained a double-digit cushion following a Penn three with 4:17 to go, but Marist made one final push with a late 10-3 spurt to close within 66-63 on an Austin Williams three-point play with 77 seconds left. However the Saints, which played in their fifth of seven MAAC contests decided by five points or less to open the league slate, held on down the stretch to improve to a stellar 33-10 all-time at home against the Red Foxes. Huerter stuffed the stat sheet with six points and careerhighs of seven rebounds and five assists to go along with two steals and a block for Siena, which clamped down defensively in the second half. The Saints limited Marist to just 25 points in the stanza, including only 2-5 from threepoint range. Siena continues its challenging stretch where it plays four of five away from home when the Saints travel to Quinnipiac for a 2 p.m. tip Sunday.