ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- The Siena men's basketball team makes its return to conference play Friday night. The Saints already have two MAAC games under their belt - they split a road trip to Western New York in early December with a close loss at Niagara and a win at Canisius. But it's solely conference action from here on out for Gerry McNamara's bunch.
Siena closed out 2024 in style with a strong, 83-77 win at Cornell to improve to 6-7, and will shift focus to Manhattan, coming in at 6-5.
The Jaspers own the top scoring average in the conference at 75.5 points per game, and are led by freshman Will Sydnor, who's averaging 15.5 ppg.
Manhattan is susceptible to giving up points too; they have the second-worst scoring defense in the league.
The Saints are back at MVP Arena Friday, where they haven't won a game since Nov. 12 against American.
In the spirit of the new year, McNamara is hoping the team embraces that mindset of not dwelling on the past, and trying to move forward.
"Their approach has been really good and really professional," said McNamara. "What I want to continue to leave behind is...you're gonna have a bad performance here and there; a bad play here and there. You have to leave it all behind; get on to the next one. That's what great players are able to do. That's what great teams are able to do. The one thing I've always said to these guys is, "You can't evaluate yourself in the moment." You have to evaluate after. 'Cause if you evaluate in [the moment], it's gonna impact the next play. And we wanna be an in-the-moment team that doesn't self-inflict and let those things trickle over. If we can continue to leave those things behind us…move forward…you know, we should be fine."
Opening tip Friday from MVP is slated for 7:00 p.m.
