Pickett’s award sets mark
Guard named MAAC Rookie of the Week for program-record 9th time
Jalen Pickett’s remarkable freshman season continues to draw accolades.
Coming off his 46-point, 13-assist game against Quinnipiac on Sunday, Pickett was named Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Rookie of the Week on Monday for a program-record ninth time this season.
Pickett passed former Saints star Kenny Hasbrouck, who received the honor eight times during the 2005-06 season.
With two weeks left in the regular season, Pickett has a chance to tie or break the MAAC record of 10 Rookie of the Week honors shared by La Salle’s Lionel Simmons in 1986-87 and Fairfield’s Derek Needham in 2009-10.
Pickett and the Saints (13-14 overall, 8-6 MAAC) take on Saint Peter’s at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Times Union Center.
Against Quinnipiac, Pickett shot 14-for-26 from the field, 4-for-8 from the 3-point line and made 14 of 17 foul shots in the 107-100 tripleovertime loss to the Bobcats. He scored 36 points combined in the second half and overtime.
“I’m not really worried about that,” Pickett said. “We’ve just got to find a way to win at the end. We got a lead there, and I feel we’ve just
got to keep working. Like coach (Jamion Christian) said, we’ve got something going here special. We’ve just got to play like that all the way.”
He scored the secondmost points in a single game in Siena history, behind only Doremus Bennerman’s 51 against Kansas State in the third-place game of the 1994 National Invitation Tournament.
“I just tried to make the right play every time down the floor,” Pickett said. “They (Quinnipiac) were going under (screens) and doing different things, and Ifeltlikeiwasopen,soi was shooting it and shooting it with confidence and we kind of had it going as a team.”
Pickett was only the second Division I player in the past 20 seasons with 45 points and 10 assists, according to ESPN.
But Quinnipiac prevailed behind senior guard Cameron Young, who scored a Maac-record 55 points. He shot 15-for-24 from the field, 9-for-13 from 3-point range and 16-for-20 from the foul line. He scored the third-most points by a Division I player in the past 20 years.
Not surprisingly, Young was named MAAC Player of the Week.
Pickett and Young’s combined 101 points were the most by opposing Division I players in the past 20 seasons.
The Saints will try to snap a two-game losing streak on Tuesday. Meanwhile, last-place Saint Peter’s (6-19, 3-10) has lost seven in a row under firstyear head coach Shaheen Holloway.
The Peacocks beat Siena 65-60 in the MAAC opener in Jersey City on Jan. 3.
Both teams have one day to prepare for this game, but it’s Siena which had to play three overtimes on Sunday with Pickett going 54 minutes and senior forward Kevin Degnan logging 52 minutes.
“Gatorade, rest and recovery, ice bath and warm bath,” Christian said. “Our strength coach (Ian Farrell) will be ready trying to stretch these guys out. Our trainer, Hammer (Greg Dashnaw) will be busy trying to keep all these guys fresh. We’re just trying to get these guys back to as even as possible. That’s all we can really focus on.”
The Saints also have to pick themselves up emotionally after a grueling loss that Christian said made him love his team even more because of the way
they rallied from a 20-point deficit in the second half.
“The guys are kind of deflated right now, but by the end of the day, we fought as hard as we can,” Degnan agreed. “I’m really proud of the guys in the locker room. It’s disappointing, but there’s good things to come from that type of game and we’re excited for the next opponent.”
Christian said graduate guard Braedon Bayer should be back Tuesday after missing Sunday’s game due to illness. Freshman guard Georges Darwiche didn’t play on Sunday, either, because he had a walking boot on his left leg. Christian described it as a “lower leg injury.”