Vanderbilt is sent packing

TAMPA, Fla. -- Privately, some Siena players wondered in recent days if their counterparts on the Vanderbilt roster knew any of their names.

If the Commodores didn’t, they surely do now.

Kenny Hasbrouck and Tay Fisher personally saw to that, and the Saints have another colossal upset to add to the team’s NCAA tournament legacy.

Hasbrouck scored 30 points, Fisher added 19 on six of six shooting from three-point range, and 13th-seeded Siena stunned fourth-seeded Vanderbilt, 83-62, on Friday night in the first round of the Midwest Regional. The Saints (23-10) never trailed, became the first Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference team to reach the second round since Manhattan in 2004, and will play Villanova on Sunday.

“I really don’t consider it an upset,” Fisher said. “I have confidence in my team and I knew we could hang with anybody in the country.”

Until now, Siena’s program was best-known for a first-round upset of Stanford in 1989.

This one might have been just as shocking, since it came against Vanderbilt, a Southeastern Conference team that reached the round of 16 last year and had aspirations of doing at least that much this year. A.J. Ogilvy scored 18 points for the Commodores (26-8).