I bailed on the drive up to Albany for Saint Peter’s-Siena on Sunday, and Bashir Mason is probably never going to forgive me for it. The Peacocks are 6-0 when I’m in attendance this season, and Mason has been seriously superstitious about trying to get me to their other games.
Luckily for him, I’ll be at the MAAC Tournament from start to finish.
Speaking of the MAAC Tournament, we now know who the No. 1 seed is going to be – the Merrimack Warriors. Joe Gallo has won 30 of his first 38 MAAC games since the program moved from the NEC. It’s tied for the most wins by a coach in his first two years with a school in the MAAC since at least 1996-97, and he can move past Tom Pecora if the Warriors win one of the two games in Buffalo next week.
Every other seed is up for grabs. As I wrote in Friday’s MAAC Report, we know that Canisius, Niagara, and Rider won’t be joining us in Atlantic City. I’ll have plenty more on seeding and scenarios over the course of the week – and will have a spreadsheet full of every possible scenario for the last day of the season when the games end next Friday night.
Anyway, here’s what happened on Sunday.
Siena 72, Saint Peter’s 63: Siena only attempted six three-pointers, but attempted 34 free throws in a nine-point win over Saint Peter’s. The Saints led for double digits for much of the game, including getting the lead all the way up to 20 in the final eight minutes before the Peacocks went on a garbage time run.
Riley Mulvey came off the bench for 27 minutes of 13 points and nine rebounds. In the first meeting of these two teams, Francis Folefac had seven assists and was the fulcrum of the Siena offense for much of the first half until Gavin Doty went off. On Sunday, it was Mulvey that played most of the minutes at the five. Doty once again shined, scoring 21 points on just eleven field goal attempts.
Saint Peter’s did not have TJ Robinson this weekend, and lost two road games. SPU is 9-0 in MAAC play at home, but now just 3-6 on the road. Lucas Scroggins returned and played 23 minutes, scoring 11 points with eight rebounds, but the Saints went wire-to-wire. It keeps Siena in play for the second seed.
Fairfield 85, Quinnipiac 79: Brandon Benjamin labored through parts of this game holding onto his right side. He checked out after just seven minutes in the first half, and was only able to play four more in the second half. In his stead, Isaac Munkadi played his best game of the season with 11 points and two blocks in 21 minutes off the bench.
Benjamin’s absence is a storyline, and hopefully he’ll be fully ready to go when the Stags take on Siena on Friday, but the Fairfield bench has really stepped up as of late. Tony Williams missed this game, but Eric Mejia had a season-high 16 points, a season-high six assists, and a season-high five rebounds starting in his place.
With approximately seven minutes left in the game, Amarri Monroe committed his fourth foul. He didn’t like the call, and made a gesture of frustration. He was assessed a technical foul, which functioned as his fifth foul, disqualifying him from the game. That’s not how Monroe imagined his final ever game at M&T Bank Arena ending. Fairfield was down three before the fouls, and ended up winning the game by six.
The Stags are 7-2 in the last nine, 10-4 in the last 14 after an 0-4 start to MAAC play. Quinnipiac lost just three MAAC home games in Tom Pecora’s first two seasons at the helm, both regular-season titles. This season, Quinnipiac lost four MAAC games at home.
Mount St. Mary’s 68, Canisius 47: I wrote earlier in the year about how difficult Mount St. Mary’s schedule was in the early portion of MAAC play. I said I wouldn’t be in panic mode if they were 2-5 headed into the Buffalo trip, and they were 2-5 heading into the Buffalo trip. Since then, the Mount is 8-3, including four wins in a row.
Yes, the Mountaineers haven’t beaten one of the teams ahead of them in the standings since January 9, but even then, the front-loaded schedule gave way to a late season run up the standings. Now 10-8 in the MAAC after sweeping Niagara and Canisius at home, the Mount controls its own destiny for a bye, and even has a chance to work its way into the fifth seed.
The senior night victory was the Mount’s best defensive performance of the season by points per possession, holding Canisius to .75 PPP. The Mount is now 9-1 when in the MAAC when it scores more than a point per possession. Arlandus Keyes had six steals, helping the Mount win the turnover battle, 17 to 13. It’s just the third time all season that the Mount won the turnover battle.
Canisius had yet another poor offensive performance, scoring a MAAC season-low 47 points. The Griffs have only scored 70-plus points twice in the last 13 games. Welcoming in Merrimack and Quinnipiac to the Koessler Center, where Canisius has lost six in a row, is a tough way to finish the season as well.
Marist 65, Sacred Heart 63: With the shot clock off down by one, Marist could’ve held for one final shot. Instead, Justin Menard came off a dribble handoff at the top of the key and isolated himself against Nyle Ralph-Beyer with about 20 seconds to play. He took a dribble in, and launched a deep three from about 4 feet behind the line, and connected.
Menard is Marist’s leader in off the dribble jumpers per game, ranking in the top 10 in the MAAC with 3.6 attempts. Among the 17 players in the conference with at least three OTD jumpers per game, he is at the very top of OTD points per possession.
The Foxes attempted a season-high 37 three-pointers and made 13 of them. It’s the eighth time that SHU has allowed double-digit made threes in MAAC play. It is 2-6 in those games. Perhaps even more notably, the Pioneers haven’t won a MAAC game all season long without making double-digit threes. 0-7.
Sacred Heart point guard Mekhi Conner was instrumental in the team’s five-game winning streak in January. In the five games that he’s played since – all losses – he’s averaging just seven points and four assists. The Pios need the best version of Conner in order to make a run in Atlantic City. It is worth noting that he missed two games with a dental injury – both SHU wins – and returned for this weekend. Both Anthony Latina and Chris Casey credited his toughness for even being on the floor on Friday night.
Merrimack 88, Iona 86 (2OT): Since Merrimack’s transition to Division I in 2019-20, the Warriors have won three outright conference championships and a share of another. They have never finished below .500 in conference play. They are 87-36 in conference games, a near 71% win rate. That ranks 22nd in all of Division I.
Over the last four seasons, they’re 55-15 in conference play, with the 78.6% win rate ranking 10th in the country. They’ve done that in two different leagues and had a different player in the running for Player of the Year each season.
This win was the eighth in a row, finishing an 11-0 season at home, 10-0 at home in MAAC play. Perhaps even more impressively, the Warriors are 9-1 in overtime conference games as a Division I program, and haven’t lost a conference game in overtime since February 8, 2020 against LIU.
Iona battled in this game, nearly knocking Merrimack off for the second time this year. The Gaels came from 15 points down as CJ Anthony was incredible in the second half and both Toby Harris and Luke Jungers made a bunch of threes. But Merrimack was able to get the job done, as Andres Marrero drew a foul on a three in overtime, tying the game at the stripe.
Kevair Kennedy may have sealed the MAAC Player of the Year with 20 points, seven assists, five steals, and six rebounds.
Rider 67, Niagara 62: Rider will not become the first MAAC team to win fewer than three games in league play since 2012. Just like last season, Flash Burton came through with a huge shot late in the game against Niagara. He finished with 20 points for the third consecutive game and the eighth time in the last 14 games.
Niagara went on a 15-0 run to flip the game from down eight to ahead by seven, each team’s largest lead respectively, but the final five minutes were all Broncs. Rider grabbed 12 offensive rebounds and forced 18 turnovers. Niagara will finish the season winless away from Western New York in MAAC play, with the only road win coming against Canisius.