Post by SienaSteve on Mar 9, 2016 17:23:29 GMT -5
Notice the attendance for a Sunday nite Iona Siena MAAC Tournament game. It was for me the single greatest moment at any Siena home MAAC tourney game. I was sitting in either sec 119 or 118, could hear the sound of the rock hitting the rim and then back iron before dropping thru. The building literally shook.
ALBANY, N.Y. — As if in slow motion, the 35-foot shot from Siena's Tom Huerter hung in the air, hit the front of the rim, the back of the rim and dropped through the net as the buzzer sounded to end regulation time, sending a Knickerbocker Arena crowd of 10,808 into ecstasy.
But Iona, which led for all but 23 seconds of the second half - only to see Huerter's shot create an 81-81 tie and send last night's Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference tournament semifinal game into overtime - still had Sean Green on its side.
Green, a gifted 6-foot-5 senior, scored an arena-record 43 points, nine of them coming in overtime, as the Gaels kept their poise before a roaring crowd in the extra period and upset the top-seeded Saints, 95-90, to advance to tonight's championship game against St. Peter's and a shot at an automatic NCAA bid.
"I just told them to stay positive," Iona coach Gary Brokaw said of what he told his team in the huddle before the overtime began. "We played well enough to hit the game, but (Huerter) hit a great shot. If we continued to execute and rebound, I thought we'd win the basketball game."
The Gaels (17-12), seeded No. 4, connected on 80 percent of their shots in the second half, hitting 16 of 20 from the field. They went 3 for 4 from the field and 7 for 8 from the foul line in the overtime.
In the final 25 minutes, Green notched 10 of 11 shots from the field, from distances ranging from 25 feet to three feet above the rim, from sharply angled bank shots to vicious slam dunks.
"It was this or just school for 24 hours a day," Green said of the Iona situation. "In my four years here, we haven't been to the NCAAs. We had an opportunity to move on and we met the challenge."
The Gaels scored the first six points of the extra period and held Siena (23-9) - which is located in nearby Loudonville, N.Y. - scoreless for the first 2 minutes, 40 seconds. Two baskets by Marc "Showbiz" Brown, the Saints' high scorer with 31, cut the deficit to 91-88 with 57 seconds remaining, but Green hit four free throws down the stretch to make Iona an unlikely finalist.
ALBANY, N.Y. — As if in slow motion, the 35-foot shot from Siena's Tom Huerter hung in the air, hit the front of the rim, the back of the rim and dropped through the net as the buzzer sounded to end regulation time, sending a Knickerbocker Arena crowd of 10,808 into ecstasy.
But Iona, which led for all but 23 seconds of the second half - only to see Huerter's shot create an 81-81 tie and send last night's Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference tournament semifinal game into overtime - still had Sean Green on its side.
Green, a gifted 6-foot-5 senior, scored an arena-record 43 points, nine of them coming in overtime, as the Gaels kept their poise before a roaring crowd in the extra period and upset the top-seeded Saints, 95-90, to advance to tonight's championship game against St. Peter's and a shot at an automatic NCAA bid.
"I just told them to stay positive," Iona coach Gary Brokaw said of what he told his team in the huddle before the overtime began. "We played well enough to hit the game, but (Huerter) hit a great shot. If we continued to execute and rebound, I thought we'd win the basketball game."
The Gaels (17-12), seeded No. 4, connected on 80 percent of their shots in the second half, hitting 16 of 20 from the field. They went 3 for 4 from the field and 7 for 8 from the foul line in the overtime.
In the final 25 minutes, Green notched 10 of 11 shots from the field, from distances ranging from 25 feet to three feet above the rim, from sharply angled bank shots to vicious slam dunks.
"It was this or just school for 24 hours a day," Green said of the Iona situation. "In my four years here, we haven't been to the NCAAs. We had an opportunity to move on and we met the challenge."
The Gaels scored the first six points of the extra period and held Siena (23-9) - which is located in nearby Loudonville, N.Y. - scoreless for the first 2 minutes, 40 seconds. Two baskets by Marc "Showbiz" Brown, the Saints' high scorer with 31, cut the deficit to 91-88 with 57 seconds remaining, but Green hit four free throws down the stretch to make Iona an unlikely finalist.