ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — After a 16-year wait, Siena men’s basketball is going back to the NCAA Tournament.
Riding an incredible defensive effort to open the second half, the third-seeded Saints smothered No. 1 seed Merrimack 64-54 to win the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference championship Tuesday at Boardwalk Hall.
Siena sophomore guard Gavin Doty had 23 points, Rotterdam native Riley Mulvey added 11 points, 11 rebounds and five blocks, and Niskayuna’s Brendan Coyle had 11 points and10 rebounds.
Siena (23-11) earned its seventh MAAC title and will play in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2010, when then-coach Fran McCaffery led a team that included Alex Franklin, Ronald Moore, and Edwin Ubiles.
The Saints had their struggles since and hadn’t reached the final since 2017. However, on Tuesday, the Saints were marching to the Big Dance again.
Siena will find out Sunday night its opponent and site in the NCAA Tournament.
The Saints held Merrimack scoreless for the first nine minutes of the second half while going on a 15-0 run to take a 45-30 lead.
Merrimack (23-11), which beat Siena twice during the regular season, wouldn’t give in. The Warriors rallied with 54-50 on an Ernest Shelton 3-pointer. But Doty answered with his own 3-pointer with 2:19 left on Siena was on its way.
Siena coach Gerry McNamara, the former Syracuse star, said, “I’m here to win,” when he was hired in 2024 to take over a program that went 4-28 the season prior to his arrival. He guided the Saints to the title in his second season despite losing four players to injury and having starting forward Antonio Chandler ruled ineligible by the NCAA before the start of the tournament.
On Tuesday, after dominating most of the first half, Siena went into halftime with a 33-30 lead as Merrimack ended the first half with a 10-0 run. Merrimack’s Kevair Kennedy finished a tough layup in traffic as time expired in the half.
Siena took control early with a 22-3 run that gave the Saints a 24-9 lead with 9:32 remaining in the half.
McNamara threw a new defensive wrinkle at Merrimack. He put freshman Francis Folefac, his 6-foot-7, 245-pound forward, on the 6-2, 165-pound Kennedy, the MAAC Player of the Year.
Kennedy, an exceptional driver, had scored 32 points and made 16-of-16 foul shots in an overtime victory over Siena on Feb. 20. The presence of Folefac, with help from Mulvey, kept Kennedy away from the basket and flummoxed Merrimack’s offense.
Siena still led 33-20 after Folefac scored inside with 3:03 to play in the half. However’s Merrimack’s Andres Marrero and Ernest Shelton both made 3-pointers to key the Warriors' half-ending run.
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