Byline: Pete Dougherty Staff writer
Just how much talent this Siena College basketball team has is open to debate each time it plays. The experience factor, though, is a non-issue.
When other avenues are closed, Siena can ride the road of experience to victory, as it did Wednesday night to defeat Central Michigan 65-52 in a non-conference game at the Alumni Recreation Center.
Marc Brown, one of three senior starters, had 22 points, six rebounds and five assists. He finally got some help from center Steve Downey (10 points, five rebounds), another senior, who scored in double figures for only the second time in his last nine games.
Throw in Lee Matthews, a 6-foot-7 sophomore who has played more career games (52) than many juniors, and Siena (15-8) can win a game even when starters Bruce Schroeder and Tom Huerter score four points between them.
'I was pleased with how well Lee and Steven played,' Siena coach Mike Deane said. 'Steven had a couple of mental lapses, but when a team is playing against us with 6-6 inside people, they can undress you a couple of times, but over 40 minutes our size and strength was very effective.'
Matthews contributed 18 points, his highest career total against a DivisionI opponent, nine rebounds and a court presence that belies his sophomore status.
'If you say, 'Coach, who beat you today,' because you know Marc Brown can beat you, it was Matthews,' Central Michigan's Charlie Coles said. 'Where did he come from?'
Central Michigan (10-10) wondered that several times in the final five minutes, when Matthews made two steals, connected on his last five foul shots, and rejected two successive 3-point attempts.
Matthews' instincts have improved as much as his jumper.
'I just try to play the game and react to what's happening on the floor,' Matthews said.
'His play was extraordinary,' Brown said.
This was far from an easy home victory for Siena, which has lost just twice on campus the past four season. The crowd of 2,722 was the season's lowest except for a January game played during a snowstorm. Those who attended were no match for Coles, who had the perfect response to the fans' obscene chant that has been directed at many a visiting coach.
'They tried to get on me,' Coles said, 'but I'm the best in the country at taking people out of the game, because I agree with them. When they said (bleep), I said, 'Who ... me?''
But Siena was able to ride other factors to keep the ARC's reputation afloat. Siena's shooting generally is sharper at home - statistically, the Saints' field-goal percentage is 3.5percent higher at home, their free- throw percentage 6.7percent higher - and that helped.
Siena made three straight shots to take a 52-41 lead with 6:27 to play. Then, as the Chippewas chipped away, Siena made 11 of 14 free throws in a six-minute stretch, maintaining its lead despite not scoring a field goal in that span.
Coles, as entertaining in a postgame press conference as he was on the sidelines, pointed to a play much earlier, with 11:17 remaining, as key. With two seconds left on a shot clock, Brown launched a 22-foot shot that found net.
'The biggest play of the game, you can't guess what it was,' Coles said. 'Marc Brown's three. Why didn't we stay on him? Three seconds on the clock! (Darian) McKinney had him, and went back. Excuse me, I didn't mean that, but, oh, God, why didn't we stay on him?'
Another key point came early in the first half, after Central took an 8-2 lead. The Chippewas went scoreless on 14 straight possessions (six turnovers, eight missed shots), enabling Siena to jump on top, 20-8.
The closest Central Michigan got after that was three points, right before Brown's 3-pointer.
'They really struggled for a long period of time against the matchup (zone) to get any kind of open shot,' Deane said. 'We got them to stand around for a long period of time. They finally made the adjustment, and wewent to man-to-man.'
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