Men’s Basketball Comes Up Short in Albany Cup Against Siena

By Carter Schum  | November 24, 2025

Jaden Kempson tallied 8 points on Friday  (11/21).

Photo Credit: Liam Martin  | The ASP 

On Friday (11/21), The University at Albany Men’s Basketball team lost to the Siena Saints 73-63 in the annual Albany Cup game. 

Early on, the game swung in favor of the Saints as they would score 8 of the first 11 points, with a Zachaire Matulu floater being the only UAlbany field basket in the first 3 minutes of the first half.

The Great Danes would swing back some momentum in the next stretch of play, as they cut the Saints’ lead to 20-11 with 11:51 left to play in the first half.

UAlbany would then go on a 9-0 run to tie the game at 20-20; however, the Saints would be up 26-22 with 7:40 remaining in the first stanza. 

Siena would add on to the lead, as the scoreboard would read 38-28 in favor of the Saints with 3:14 on the clock. 

The Great Danes would continue to struggle, as with 1:14 left in the first half, the Saints would extend their lead to a then game high 15 points, 44-29. 

The half would end with Siena leading 46-31. UAlbany was led in points by Amir Lindsey who tallied 14 on 5-6 shooting. The Saints were led by Tasman Goodrick and Justice Shoats who scored 15 and 14 points respectively. 

Siena shot an impressive 65% from the field in the first half, while UAlbany was only able to shoot 50%. Part of the struggles during the first period of play for the Great Danes came at the free-throw line as they were only able to make 4 of 8 shots from the charity stripe. The Saints also firmly controlled the paint, as Siena held a 15-8 lead in rebounds. 

Early in the second half, the Great Danes would chip away at the Saints’ lead. Behind a strong start in which they made five of their first six field goals, UAlbany would cut Siena's lead to 53–43 at the 15:46 mark of the second half..

UAlbany's hot start to the 2nd half would continue, as less than 2 minutes later they would cut the Saints lead to 55-49 with 14:01 remaining in the second half, forcing Siena head coach Gerry Macnamara to call a timeout. 

The Great Danes would draw one point closer in their comeback bid at the 7:35 mark as the Saints lead was cut to 63-57. 

The Saints would however control the next portion of play to kill off any chances of a Great Dane comeback as Gavin Doty would go on to give the Saints a 68-61 lead with 4:35 left to play in the game. 

The final 3 minutes would see the Great Danes score only two more points, as a few stops from the Siena defense would see them close out the 73-63 win to lift the Albany Cup in front of 7,024 fans at MVP arena. 

“We're just not ready to win that game, but we grew,” said Head Coach Dwayne Killings of UAlbany's performance. 

Looking at the scoring charts, Amir Lindsey topped UAlbany in points with 23 on 7-8 shooting while playing all 40 minutes. Okechukwu Okeke and Zacharie Matulu were the other Great Danes to score in double figures with both of them tallying 11 points. Issac Abbide led in rebounds with 7. 

For Siena, Tasman Goodrick led with 19 points. The other Saints to score in double figures were Gavin Doty who also played the full 40 minutes with 15, Justice Shoats with 14 and Brendan Coyle with 13. Antonio Chandler and Francis Folefac were the only other Siena players to score points in the game. 

With the loss, UAlbany fell to 2-4 on the year while the Saints improved to 3-2. 

The Great Danes are back in action on November 28th when they take on the Colgate Raiders in the first game of the Northern Classic in Laval, Quebec. They return to Broadview Center on December 21st when they face the Cornell Big Red.