ALBANY - Siena's 82-65 defeat of Niagara marked a couple of things.

First, it is Siena's ninth win in 10 games and 13th consecutive home win, dating back to last season, when the Saints lost to Rider 89-75 at home Feb. 2, 2008.

The Saints now have a 3.5 game lead on both Niagara and Rider, who are 5-3 and are off to the best start in Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference play since 1989-90 when LaSalle went 16-0.file:///Users/andrewsantillo/Desktop/Downey.jpg

They led throughout on Saturday and were never really threatened by the Purple Eagles.

"When they had open shots, they made them, they need to get a rebound, they got it, they need to dribble drive for a basket, they did it," Niagara coach Joe Mihalich said. "At the other end, we did not do that."

This put it a little more succinctly.

"They beat us every which way," Mihalich said.

Sophomore Ryan Rossiter was doing much of the beating. On top of 18 points and 12 rebounds, the 6-foot-9 forward added five blocks to the mix.

"I'm definitely more comfortable than I was last year," Rossiter said. "Playing with these guys last year, sometimes I was in awe of what they were able to do, so I kind of took a backseat, but this year, I'm just trying to get in there and do what I can to help the team."

Both coaches couldn't say enough good things about Rossiter.

"He's good at both ends," Mihalich said. "He has a presence up there and good instincts."

Rossiter is now averaging 9.6 points and 6.8 rebounds per game.

"Coach (Andrew) Francis always tells me to attack the glass and (Siena) Coach (Fran McCaffery) always tells me that, so it definitely helps to get some cheap rebounds on tip-outs and what not," Rossiter said. "I know that's my role on this team, to get rebounds, so that's what I try to do."

Mihalich referred to something fomer NBA coach and Schenectady native Pat Riley does, which is track who attacks the glass after each shot.

"I'll be you he's almost 100 percent," Mihalich said. "Every time a shot goes up, he goes after it and that's what the really good players do."

Rossiter drew some big-time credit from his teammtes.

"He put on some moves tonight," said junior Edwin Ubiles, who scored two more points than Rossiter's 18. "He was on fire and we kept going to him."

Speaking of Ubiles, this is what McCaffery had to say about the 6-foot-7 wing's game-high 20 points.

"Eddie's amazing," McCaffery said. "I don't know how you get a quiet 20 (points), but he did. He just does what he does."

Ubiles scored 10 in each half and really did do a lot of damage without a lot of the electricity and intensity he can sometimes score with.

"I was patient and my points came over time," Ubiles said.

_______________

Coming off a week layoff and playing much earlier than they have been recently, Siena still came right out of the gate with energy.

Siena made 10 of their first 11 shots and maybe it's because they took it easy on Friday night.

"The key to that is getting rest, go to bed early and that's what I did last night," Ubiles said.

Ubiles said he went to bed at 11 p.m., "early" by his standards, especially for a Friday night.

_______________

Siena is now 9-0, halfway home and still without a loss in conference play.

Still, there were no thoughts about looking ahead of Monday's date with Iona.

"Iona," was all McCaffery replied to when asked about looking at a more grander scale. "That's it."

His players got the memo.

"We're looking forward to Iona now," Rossiter said. "We got a good win today and we're taking it one game at a time."