Euroleague American Tour, Siena runs out of time in Cleveland

Two nights after a rough start to its Euroleague American Tour, Montepaschi Siena recovered to challenge for four quarters before losing late by a 91-85 margin to the host Cleveland Cavaliers of the NBA early Tuesday morning. Tied 72-72 with 7 minutes to play, Siena let up an 11-0 run to Cleveland. After getting as close again as 81-85 in the final minute, Siena ran out of time to challenge for the victory. Samardo Samuels led six double-figure scores for Cleveland with 17 points, while Donald Sloan added 14 and Tristan Thompson 12. Siena was led in scoring by Bobby Brown, with 22 points, while Matt Janning boosted the visitors to a first-half lead and finished with 21. Daniel Hackett added 14 and 5 assists, while Ben Eze pulled 10 rebounds for Siena, which enjoyed 5 three-point shots each from Brown and Janning. 

Siena jumped out to early leads on three-pointers by David Moss and Brown at 4-7. Then Janning took over, hitting a step-back jumper followed by 2 triples all in the same minute of inspiration to let the visitors surge ahead 8-15. Cleveland responded with 5 points in a row by Kyrie Irving before Daniel Hackett emerged for Siena. His 6 points to finish the quarter rewarded the visitors' solid defense with a 17-22 advantage after 12 minutes.

Cleveland was able to tie early in the second quarter before Ben Eze's dunk restored the Siena lead, but a triple by Omri Casspi finally put the hosts in front. Siena just took the lead back as Eze, Mario Kasun and Janning, with his third three-pointer, reclaimed a 27-32 scoreboard. Brown and Hackett were perfect at the free throw line to help Siena maintain its edge, 33-36, at halftime.

Cleveland came out firing after the break as 5 points from C.J. Miles keyed a 9-3 run to a 42-39 lead. Moss quickly tied again with a three-point play, but the Siena defense started to wilt under an ongoing barrage that saw Cleveland add a 14-7 run with another triple by Miles, two dunks by Thompson and two baskets by former Euroleague champ Anderson Varejao. Down 56-46, Siena rallied behind Janning and Viktor Sanikidze to tie beore Sloan's three-pointer let Cleveland lead 63-60 after three quarters.

Kasun's first basket of the fourth quarter put Siena within a shot of the lead, but a pair of jumpers by Samuels restored Cleveland's lead at 70-64. Janning fired up a triple in response and soon enough Brown was copying him to forge another tie, 72-72, with under 7 minutes to play. That's when Siena went cold, however, while Sloan hit consecutive baskets to spark an 11-0 Cleveland run. Hackett, Brown and Moss fought back to get Siena as close as 85-81, but that was already the game's final minute. Cleveland preserved its lead with free throws the rest of the way as Siena prepared to travel home and start the Turkish Airlines Euroleague season on Friday against Alba Berlin.

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