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Already lacking front court depth, Siena loses starting forward to ankle injury

Lavon Long,Karachi Edo

Lavon Long,Karachi Edo

AP

Less than two weeks after senior forward Brett Bisping went down with a toe injury that required surgery, Siena head coach Jimmy Patsos has another personnel loss to deal with. According to Mark Singelais of the Albany Times-Union, sophomore forward Lavon Long suffered a high left ankle sprain during practice Wednesday afternoon.

While initial reports had the 6-foot-7 Long missing anywhere from two to three weeks, Siena issued a release declaring Long to be “day-to-day.” Yet with that being the case the school has ruled Long out for the team’s game at Radford Friday night.

Long’s started all eight games for Siena this season, averaging 9.9 points, 5.8 rebounds and 2.5 assists in 28 minutes of action per contest. Long’s most productive game came in Siena’s loss t Rider December 7, as he scored 16 points and grabbed five rebounds in 31 minutes of action.

Without Long the expectation is that senior Rob Poole, the team’s leading scorer, will shift into the small forward role. But what’s of even greater importance for Siena is that they’ll be playing without their top two rebounders for the time being. Poole is grabbing an average of 4.3 rebounds per game and players such as Javion Ogunyemi, Willem Brandwijk and Jimmy Paige (who averages just 3.2 minutes per game) will need to step up.

The Saints, who are 1-1 in MAAC play, won’t play another conference game until they visit Fairfield January 3.

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