Siena wins MAAC regular season, Monmouth clinches No. 4 seed

Manny Camper’s 14 points and 18 rebounds helped Siena sweep Monmouth to win regular season MAAC championship Friday. (Photo by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)

WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J. — Through the first month of Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference play, any of the league's eleven teams had an equal opportunity to emerge from the chaos of a parity-laden season as the sole survivor of one of the more unpredictable years in recent history.

In the end, though, there was hardly any doubt.

Needing a win or a loss by fellow upstart Saint Peter’s to clinch the program’s first conference crown of any kind in a decade, Siena controlled its own destiny Friday and played accordingly, making as convincing a statement as possible in an 86-72 victory — its ninth straight — over Monmouth to earn the No. 1 seed in next week's MAAC tournament in Atlantic City.

“I couldn’t write this story any other way,” a proud Carmen Maciariello declared as the Saints culminated the first-year head coach’s debut campaign by earning, at the very least, an automatic bid to the National Invitation Tournament by winning their first MAAC regular season title since also securing the last of their three consecutive conference tournaments in 2010. “I’m just a proud coach right now. They did warrior’s work tonight.”

“We’ve got more work to do,” senior forward Elijah Burns added after recording 14 points and a half-dozen rebounds, immediately shifting his focus to the upcoming postseason opener Wednesday night against either Fairfield or Manhattan in the conference tournament quarterfinals. “That’s all I’m thinking about. We’ve got a tournament to get to next week, so that’s what I’m really focused on.”

Siena (19-10, 15-5 MAAC) fed off hot outside shooting in the first half — the Saints were 8-of-17 from 3-point range at one point in the opening stanza — and efficient shot selection over the final 20 minutes, and thrived off its ability to keep Monmouth off the glass between the two-headed interior monster of Burns and Manny Camper. All told, the visitors outrebounded Monmouth by 16, 43-27, with Camper amassing 18 caroms of his own, and controlled putback opportunities whenever they presented themselves, registering a 17-4 edge in second-chance points against a Hawks outfit that was simply outplayed.

“Let’s give Carmen and Siena all the credit,” a succinct King Rice stated. “They came in and outplayed us on our home floor. It doesn’t feel good right now, but we’re all big boys. You can take somebody beating you, and they beat us today. It’s all good.”

Siena led by as many as 19 points late in the first half, prompting Rice to call a rare timeout to spark a fire in his Monmouth team, which had only lost once this season at the OceanFirst Bank Center. The pep talk worked, as the Hawks (18-13, 12-8 MAAC) closed the period on a 14-4 run, bringing their deficit to just nine points, a 43-34 margin, at the intermission.

The Saints soon slammed the door out of the halftime break, however, quickly dictating tempo and extending their lead back into double digits. Monmouth crept back within nine points, but could get no closer despite 27 points from Deion Hammond on a night where second-leading scorer Ray Salnave was limited down the stretch due to foul trouble, including a situation where he and Siena’s Jordan King were called for offsetting technical fouls.

The emotional and physical nature of the contest came to a head shortly after the final buzzer, when words appeared to be exchanged in the postgame handshake line, prompting Salnave being restrained by teammates George Papas and Sam Ibiezugbe. (Video courtesy of Mark Singelais/Albany Times Union)

Here was the skirmish after the buzzer: pic.twitter.com/e4GsejNRna

— Mark Singelais (@MarkSingelais) March 7, 2020

“I think that all of us coaches have to get our kids to stop talking so much,” Rice said of the extracurricular activities. “It’s going to spill off the court, so let’s keep all this chirping to a minimum. I’m telling you, this league is letting a lot of things go, and a lot of things are being said. It’s just not a good look.”

“If you beat me, I’ll shake your hand, I’ll walk off, I’ll congratulate all your kids. I don’t have my guys out here chirping, trying to talk crazy to kids, because I know when it gets too far, what could happen. Things can happen when you do that.”

Monmouth will be one of the last teams to take the floor at Boardwalk Hall, as the Hawks’ quarterfinal meeting with Quinnipiac is the last matchup of that round Thursday night. As for Siena, the newly-minted top seed will retool heading into its next chapter, but not before Maciariello admitted he needed to let his players enjoy what had just been accomplished.

“I gotta tell these guys to stop being so stoic, and I gotta smile more often, too,” he quipped. “We’ve gotta enjoy this thing, at least on this bus ride back. Anytime Monmouth made a run, we were kind of able to counterpunch, and they would come again and we would counterpunch. Guys made big plays all night long, and we stayed the course. It’s a great day to be a Saint.”