Albany

Siena men's basketball coach Jimmy Patsos thought his team might have been too satisfied with playing the College of Charleston tough in an overtime defeat in the season opener last Friday.

"That doesn't mean losing is OK," Patsos said. "I thought some of that sentiment settled in tonight: 'Oh we're fine because everything's fine.'"

Here's a news flash: It isn't fine. Far from it after Florida Gulf Coast, the defending Atlantic Sun champion, pounded the Saints 86-53 on Monday night before a disappointed crowd of 5,387 that turned out at Times Union Center.

They got to see history of the negative kind. It was tied for Siena's most lopsided home loss as a Division I program, matched only by a 91-58 setback against Iona in the 1996-97 season. The Saints upgraded to Division I in 1976-77.

"It's definitely embarrassing," Siena sophomore guard Ahsante Shivers (six points) said. "Nobody on the team is happy right now, I can tell you that. Nobody should be happy with this loss. I feel like it's early in the season, so we can rebound from it."

Siena (0-2) can hope better days are ahead for a team that has no seniors, five sophomore and five freshmen. Maybe in the next game at Lehigh of the Patriot League on Friday.

It will help if the Saints can get junior guard Nico Clareth right. Clareth, a preseason second-team all-Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference selection, had his second straight subpar game with six points on 3-of-12 shooting, including 0-of-5 from the 3-point range, and four turnovers. He forced shots and had no assists for the second straight game.

Clareth drew three fouls in the first half, so Patsos sat him to begin the second half and started sophomore guard Khalil Richard instead.

"I think he puts too much pressure on himself," Patsos said. "I think maybe he's disappointed. He has really high goals for himself. He doesn't have an assist yet this season, and that has to change."

Patsos said he will talk with Clareth, a co-captain, who didn't stick around to answer questions from the media afterward. All of his teammates did.

Richard finished with 12 points, the only Saint to score in double figures.

"We just didn't play with any passion," Richard said. "They came out harder than us and they wanted it more. We just have to come out harder. That's pretty much it."

Siena started the game trying to pound the ball inside to freshman center Prince Oduro, who had a double-double against Charleston. But he went 2-for-12 for seven points with three rebounds against FGCU, which started Michigan transfer Ricky Doyle at center.

"Hello, welcome to freshman land," Patsos said. "He didn't do anything wrong. Technically, he was sound, he executed well. ... It's going to be up and down."

Freshman guard Jordan Horn, who tied the Charleston game at the buzzer in regulation, had six points and missed all three of his 3-pointers. Freshman point guard Roman Penn has yet to score in two games.

"I think experience is what's lacking right now," Oduro said. "That's a factor why we played really hard at Charleston and today our effort was lacking a little bit."

FGCU guards Brandon Goodwin and Christian Terrell had 16 points each.

The Eagles outrebounded Siena 48-33 and held a massive 50-16 edge in points in the paint.

FGCU (2-0) led 40-27 at halftime and used a 15-3 run to open a 58-38 lead with 10 minutes to play. The Eagles lived up to their "Dunk City" nickname as they ran away in the second half.

"A team that talented, you can't be lackadaisical," junior forward Evan Fisher said. "Losing any time isn't good, but at home by that amount, we're not happy about it. But we realize it's not the end of the world. There's a lot of games left."

msingelais@timesunion.com • 518-454-5509 • @MarkSingelais