Box Score Albany, NY - The Iona College men's basketball team came within three points of erasing a 17-point first half deficit in a 81-76 loss to Siena in MAAC action at the Times Union Center. Junior Devon Clarke and sophomore Milan Prodanovic each matched their season-high with 17 and 16 points respectively to lead five players in double figures in the loss.

Iona (2-7, 1-1 MAAC) jumped out to an early 10-4 lead heading into the first media timeout. Back-to-back three pointers by Prodanovic and senior Kyle Camper broke a four-all tie. The Saints (5-3, 2-0 MAAC) quickly scored seven straight to erase the deficit with sophomores Alex Franklin and Edwin Ubiles doing the damage. Siena opened up an eight point lead at the 9:02 mark on Tay Fisher's trifecta. Clarke cut the deficit to 29-24 on a put back off an offensive rebound at 4:31. A 12-0 Saints run over the next nearly four minutes gave the home team a 17 point cushion. A Prodanovic layup and freshman Andre Tarver's three pointer at the buzzer sandwiched around a Siena free throw cut the deficit to 13 at break.

The Gaels' agressive defense slowly assisted in the team's chipping away of the lead. With 6:33 remaining, junior Gary Springer's put back cut the deficit to five. Siena scored the next six points to go back up by 11 but the Maroon & Gold got the points right back with an 8-2 run of their own. Down by six with less than 30 seconds remaining, Camper hit a clutch three from the corner to make the score 77-74. On the ensuing in bound, the Gaels' appeared to get a break with a Siena turnover giving them a shot at a game-tying possession. The out-of-bounds relay, however, was ruled to have hit the referee and the ball was awarded back to the Saints. Iona was forced to foul as Ubiles and junior Kenny Hasbrouck hit all four free throws in the final 15 seconds of the game.

Clarke scored 11 of his 17 points in the second half before fouling out with seven minutes remaining. The Gaels leading scorer - senior Dexter Gray - was also plagued by foul trouble rendering him scoreless in just 11 minutes of play. Prodanovic had 11 of his 16 in the first half and connected on two three pointers to extend his team lead to 20 on the season. After being sidelined for just shy of a month, Springer tallied 13 points (all in the second half) and grabbed nine rebounds (seven offensive) in his return to the court. Camper and sophomore De'Shaune Griffin had 10 points a piece in the loss.

Ubiles, Frankin and Hasbrouck were the Saints' leading scorers combining for a 28-for-32 (87.5%) from the free throw line. Iona out shot, out rebounded and recorded seven more field goals than Siena but the 31-11 difference in free throws made proved to be the difference in the loss.

The Gaels will look to regroup with a week off before returning to non-conference action at New Hampshire next Saturday (Dec. 15) afternoon.