PHILADELPHIA – Senior-laden Siena is certainly not a one-man show. Evidence of that came on Saturday for those who weren’t already aware. But there’s no question that the man running the show is a major key to this team, and that can be seen in the contrast of Friday and Saturday night for the Saints.
In Friday night’s loss, point guard Ronald Moore had a career-high seven turnovers. That wasn’t exactly the script for a young man playing not far from his hometown, and while the Saints didn’t lose the game because of that – six came in the first half, and the Saints allowed the Red Storm to shoot 63 percent from the field in the second half – they certainly didn’t help. But on Saturday, Moore bounced back, scoring 19 points and handing out 11 assists as the Saints blew out Brown 99-79.
Moore was 9-12 from the field, leading the way as Alex Franklin had 21 on 7-10 shooting and Clarence Jackson had 23 on 8-12 shooting, including 5-8 from long range.
“He was a little over-aggressive last night, he made a couple of uncharacteristic turnovers,” head coach Fran McCaffery said of Moore. “There was a lot of contact on backdoor cuts and the ball was getting fumbled out of bounds. Tonight, we encouraged him to do what he always does, but try to get him to shoot that pull-up.”
McCaffery said he’s been trying to get Moore to take that pull-up jumper more. It’s a deadly weapon considering his quickness and ability to find others, because teams won’t initially play him for the jumper. They will play him more for getting to the basket and dishing off to teammates like Franklin, Jackson, Ryan Rossiter or Edwin Ubiles, among others, mindful that Moore was among the nation’s leaders in assists last season. Before Saturday, he had already moved into second place all-time in assists at the school.
A good three-point shooter, Moore had been struggling heading into the game against Brown. Even after hitting his only attempt from long range, he’s still shooting below 19 percent from behind the arc on the season. That’s all the more reason McCaffery wanted him to try something different offensively.
“He’s been shooting too many threes,” McCaffery said. “He’s a pretty good three-point shooter, particularly out of the corner, he’s excellent, but his pull-up game is as good as anybody in the country. He can get to that elbow, he can get to that free throw line area, against pretty much anybody.”
Moore’s teammates are right with him. Said Franklin: “That’s his game. He can hit that shot nine out of ten times, we tell him to shoot that all the time.”
With those abilities, Moore obviously has a balancing act to play, and he’s well aware of it. Depending on how teams defend the Saints, the results can vary by game. But given his track record, it’s not hard to figure that his teammates trust him completely.
“I’m so focused on finding other guys,” Moore said. “I’ve got a lot of good players surrounding me, so as the year has been going along I’ve been trying to juggle both, knocking down the little 15-foot jump shot and being able to find guys. Tonight, it really worked out for me.”
The big efforts from Moore, Franklin and Jackson also helped offset another tough game for Ubiles, who was 2-9 from the field and has been hampered by tendinitis in his knee. Ubiles said he first noticed it after the game against Northeastern, in which he played an excellent game with 26 points. He hasn’t been the same since.
“All I remember was, when I was stretching and trying to stretch my hip, and I turned my knee and I felt my knee crack,” Ubiles recalled. “It didn’t bother me during the game, so I just kept playing through it, and then after the game, that was it. My knee just started feeling weak after that. I don’t remember hurting it in the game, because that whole game I was playing great, and then after it just hit me.”
In the win over Northeastern, Ubiles played better than his 26-point stat line would suggest, as he played like a consummate senior leader. The trouble with the injury he has is that it’s often one that will only get better with rest, and he’s not going to have much of that until late March.
The Saints may have a tough time being an NCAA Tournament at-large candidate. Their best win is over Northeastern, a team not likely to be an at-large candidate, and save for Georgia Tech and Missouri Valley favorite Northern Iowa, they’re out of chances for wins that will likely impress the NCAA Tournament committee. Both games are on the road, which will help, but the Saints look like they will have to come out of the MAAC as champions.
While the MAAC looks good this year, the Saints are the clear favorites. They have a senior core that has won a lot of games together, including in the NCAA Tournament, and McCaffery is trying to develop some depth as well, which will only help. That senior core has plenty of balance as well, especially the point guard who makes this team go. How he plays can often set the tone, as evidenced near his hometown this weekend.
