Eagles can't wait to see Siena again
By MIKE HARRINGTON
News Sports Reporter
1/14/2003
LEWISTON - A 10-month wait finally ends tonight for Niagara.
The party line is that the Purple Eagles simply want to continue their resurrection by collecting another win when they play defending Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference champion Siena in the Gallagher Center (7, Radio 1440 AM).
But there's also some deeper meaning on the line.
The last time the teams met, it was on the national stage. Siena prevailed, 92-77, in the MAAC Tournament championship game March 4 at Albany's Pepsi Arena. The Saints, in their first season under Buffalo native Rob Lanier, went to the NCAAs and denied Niagara its first bid since 1970.
"We all remember that for a lot of reasons," NU coach Joe Mihalich said after practice Monday. "On the one hand, you remember it for the rest of your life. Any competitor would. But still, it seems like so long ago. We're a lot different than last year and so are they."
"There's a little revenge there," said Niagara center James Reaves. "They ended our season last year and kept us from where we wanted to go, so we want to try to get them back. They took it to us that game, really brought it. We just didn't play as well as they did."
Siena is 9-4 overall and third in the MAAC at 3-1. Niagara (6-7, 2-2) is tied for fifth with St. Peter's after splitting on a road trip last week to Marist and Manhattan.
Siena was just 12-18 last year until becoming the first team in conference history to win four games in the MAAC tournament. The Saints beat Alcorn State in the NCAA play-in game before losing to eventual national champion Maryland, 85-70.
"They're still riding that amazing wave," Mihalich said. "That's a real credit to them. They got a taste of success. Does success breed confidence or does confidence breed success? Whichever way it is, they've got both right now."
So, too, do the Purple Eagles. NU has rallied after a miserable 1-5 start, losing its first three games for the first time in 13 years. The Purple Eagles survived a five-game road trip with a 3-2 record and play at home tonight for the first time since Dec. 21.
"We were down this road last year a little bit although not this bad," Mihalich said of his 2001-02 team that started 3-6 and finished 18-14. "On the one hand, I'm embarrassed to say we're 6-7 right now. But when you're 1-5 and you just had five in a row in the road, you know you're at least doing some things right."
The Purple Eagles have tightened their defensive yield in the last seven games and have gotten much bigger contributions from their bench by first shuffling Reaves and now sophomore guard David Brooks from the starting lineup into the reserve corps.
When Reaves suffered a concussion prior to the Dec. 14 game against Akron, Mihalich opted to bring him off the bench and start little-used Paul De Wet. The Purple Eagles won and Mihalich had stumbled on to a pick-me-up for his team.
"To his credit, (Reaves) said to me, "Coach, if it's not broke, don't fix it,"' Mihalich said.
NU was 2-1 with Reaves playing as a reserve, a move that seems to have kick-started his season.
Reaves was averaging just 9.5 points and 7.8 rebounds over the first six games but has picked up the pace considerably since. In NU's last seven contests, Reaves is averaging 14.3 points and 8.0 rebounds.
"I needed to bring a spark off the bench," Reaves said. "We were kind of dead, didn't have that energy or excitement. So I wanted to bring that to our game. I picked up my intensity a lot.
"Coach (Mihalich) kept us up even when we were down. I thank him a lot for what he's doing with us, especially me. . . . He's had faith in us. There were times I think he was the only person who did. I know I started to lose faith, but he stuck with us."
Brooks has done a similar job, averaging 8.7 over the last seven games while freshman James Mathis gets starting duties. Brooks had a career-high 16 points in a win at Youngstown State.
"Now we have scoring power off the bench," Mihalich said. "It's nice to know your team can get better in areas when you make a substitution."
Depth will be a factor tonight against Siena, which has continued to win despite the graduation loss of star guard Dwayne Archbold, the MVP of last year's MAAC tournament.
Senior guard Prosper Karangwa averages 16.5 points to lead Lanier's team. Michael Haddix, a 6-foot-7 freshman who is the son of the former Philadelphia Eagles running back of the same name, averages 14 points and a team-high 6.8 rebounds. Junior forward Justin Miller (Southwestern) averages 4.1 points and 4.5 rebounds but has been supplanted in the starting lineup by Haddix.
