Siena basketball 'didn't play the right way' in opening loss

Siena freshman Parrish Edmond Jr., who had six points and three steals in his college debut, guards Bryant's Duane Thompson in the Saints' opening loss on Monday. (Bryant University Athletics) First-year Siena men's basketball coach Nevada Smith could handle losing his regular-season debut on Monday night. It was the way the Saints lost that really bothered him.Smith said the Saints were "terrible" offensively in Monday's 80-75 defeat at Bryant in the opener at Chace Athletic Center in Smithfield, R.I."I'm not surprised that we didn't win," Smith said. "I'm just surprised we didn't play the right way."Now Smith gets to find out quickly how his team responds to a loss. The Saints play their home opener at 1 p.m. Sunday against Princeton at MVP Arena in Albany."Remember how you feel right now," said Smith, when asked what he would tell his players. "That's the best motivator we have. Remember how you feel the next morning. Don't let it happen again, because most of that stuff is correctable and under our control."The Saints shot 6-for-27 from 3-point range on Monday, including 1-for-11 in the second half. The number of 3-point attempts was more than in all but two games last year under former head coach Gerry McNamara.Smith said he wants Siena to lead the nation in 3-pointers taken. However, he didn't like the type of shots he saw against Bryant."We weren't shooting on the catch," Smith said. "We were pump-faking. We were taking too many guarded shots."He exempted freshman Tim Ibukunoluwa from that criticism. The 6-foot-8 Australian finished with 20 points, including 2-of-6 from 3-point range, and 14 rebounds in his college debut."They weren't guarding Tim," Smith said. "Tim had a license to shoot a little bit tonight. He did. I thought he shot the right ones."Smith pointed out Bryant doesn't help much on defense, which deprived Niskayuna native Brendan Coyle (six points) and Reid Ducharme (nine points) of open 3-point opportunities. They shot a combined 3-for-9 from beyond the arc. Both dealt with foul trouble, too, and Ducharme fouled out with 3:57 to play."They just couldn't get into a rhythm," Smith said.Siena shot 37.5% from the field and shot 21-of-32 from the foul line. The Saints missed 10 foul shots in the second half. "They (Bryant) are super physical on the ball, so we didn't get downhill as much as we have been, which we have to get better at," Smith said. "But we've got to generate better looks - and we had guys open. We just missed them."The Saints committed 15 turnovers, including 10 in the second half. Smith questioned a couple of travel calls"They were physical on defense for sure, so credit to them," Siena junior point guard Pace Prosser said. "It's just all our mistakes, which we can clean up very easily. It's just like a half-second there, weak with the ball here. We clean those up, we're able to win that game, probably."Prosser, a transfer from Gannon, played his first Division I regular-season game and finished with 15 points on 4-for-12 shooting, seven rebounds and eight assists."I've got a lot of confidence in the guys in there," Prosser said. "I've got a lot of confidence in myself. I feel like we can make those type of shots, but definitely could have got some easier looks to get us going a little easier, for sure."Smith said Siena was "pretty good" defensively for most of the game, though Bryant big man Keegan Harvey hurt the Saints in the second half. He finished with 20 points and 12 rebounds.The Saints got encouraging debuts from the freshman trio of Ibukunoluwa, Trent Egbiremolen (15 points, six rebounds) and Parrish Edmond (six points, three steals), who had a spectacular two-handed dunk on the 6-11 Harvey."They had moments where they were really good," Smith said. "You can see what Parrish can be. He's got to show us that every day. Trent and Tim, we're going to rely on a ton. They're going to keep getting better."Siena won't have freshman Yannis Steger this season. The Saints announced before the game the German will miss the season with a right-knee injury suffered in an Oct. 24 closed scrimmage at Holy Cross."Yeah, disappointing," Smith said. "He was playing great. He was finally getting to where he felt comfortable, doing some great things, and just an unfortunate non-contact injury. So, he's got our full support, and he'll be back healthier and better."SubscribeThere’s more to Albany with the Times Union. Subscribe today for just 25¢.This article originally published at Siena basketball 'didn't play the right way' in opening loss.