Saints try to regain touch

Siena, on first 3-game skid of season, meets Jaspers on Senior Night

ALBANY — It’s March and the Siena men’s basketball team has two more chances to get well before heading down to the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Tournament in Atlantic City, N.J.

The Saints, on their first three-game losing streak of the season, will try to right themselves Thursday on Senior Night against Manhattan at MVP Arena and in Saturday’s regularseason finale at Saint Peter’s.

“I think our confidence never really wavered,” said graduate guard Andrew Platek of Guilderland, one of six Saints to be honored before their final college home game.

“We played terribly (last) weekend but that doesn’t mean we’re not a confident team (or that) we can’t go out and beat anybody in the league. We’ve done it. We’ve just got to regain our focus, our composure, our attention to detail needs to get a little better and just go out and give everything. We have three guaranteed games left. We need to play like we only have one left and that’s the attitude we need to keep for the rest of the season.”

Third-place Siena (17-12 overall, 11-7 MAAC) is coming off back-to-back road losses last weekend — a three-point defeat at second-place Rider and a 33-point rout at regular-season champion Iona.

Now the Saints get a rematch against Manhattan, which beat Siena 71-66 on Feb. 3 in Riverdale. That was another road game Siena let get away after holding a six-point lead with 1:49 left in regulation.

“Not turn it over as much,” said Platek, whose team had 16 turnovers in the earlier loss. “Take better shots. I think attacking their press will be important for us and not just settling down and playing into their hands. So I think if we come out and be the aggressors, we’ll have a better shot of winning.”

Siena coach Carmen Maciariello said his team has thrown the Iona loss “out the window.” He felt his team’s psyche was affected by the difficult loss at Rider two nights earlier.

“Obviously, the month of Feb

ruary (a 2-5 record) was not kind to us,” Maciariello said. “Some bumps and hurdles. I think this team is old enough and mature enough to understand let’s make the most out of those lessons and carry those over to Atlantic City.”

Maciariello said he liked the challenges presented by Manhattan and Saint Peter’s, both tough, physical teams.

“We’ve got to be able to handle that pressure,” Maciariello said. “But we’ve got to be the aggressor, right? We have to have that mindset where every play could be our last and we’ve got to make sure we’re meeting every pass with urgency.”

Maciariello texted Wednesday he expected Jared Billups (upper-body injury) to practice that day and play on Thursday after missing the Iona game. If Billups plays, he will almost certainly get the assignment of guarding fifth-year Manhattan guard Ant Nelson, who averages 15.3 points per game.

Nelson had 19 points in the earlier meeting with Siena, including the game-tying layup to end regulation. He is coming off a game-winning shot at the buzzer Sunday at Quinnipiac after Manhattan (11-16, 9-9) rallied from a 21-point deficit.

The Jaspers haven’t won back-to-back games since beating Siena.

In the earlier meeting, Siena sophomore point guard Javian Mccollum was coming off a back injury and went scoreless in 14 minutes. In his past five games, Mccollum is making just 31.1 percent (19-for-61) from the field. Maciariello said Mccollum’s back is “good to go” and he’s still seeing a chiropractor.

“I just think he’s trying to get in rhythm,” Maciariello said. “Coming back, teams do different things to try and take him out of rhythm, so credit to them. But we believe in Javian.”

Siena would clinch a MAAC Tournament first-round bye with a win tonight and no worse than the No. 3 seed with a sweep.

“You want to get hot in March,” graduate forward Michael Baer said. “We know we can do it.

“We were playing great basketball earlier in the season and we’ve just got to get back to that. We know that we’re better than we’re playing right now.”