LOUDONVILLE — Liene Jansone went through a sort of basketball boot camp last week. In practices, the Siena women’s basketball center was berated by her coach and forced to do push-ups.

But Jansone, a junior from Latvia, didn’t commit a typical infraction. She hustled and played smart. In fact, Siena coach Gina Castelli was pleased with her center’s play — except for one thing.

Jansone was too nice.

‘Liene’s a really good person,’ Castelli said. ‘But she transfers that onto the floor. Sometimes I have to get on her for that.’

In the Saints’ WNIT opening-round win over Syracuse, Jansone cleaned up — or, perhaps more appropriately, dirtied — her act. She was meaner than Bobby Knight after a root canal, dominating the low post with a career-high 29 points and 13 rebounds.

‘She certainly had a field day,’ SU coach Marianna Freeman said. ‘She plays very well in the low post.’

‘She did a great job,’ said Gunta Basko, Siena’s captain and the two-time MAAC Player of the Year. ‘We really wanted her to go inside and be strong, and that’s what she did. She did what coach asked her to.’

The 6-foot-2 Jansone battered SU’s centers, gaining position in the low blocks to convert layup after layup. Jansone shot 14 for 23. Thirteen of her baskets were lay-ins.

‘It’s really difficult to defend her,’ Freeman said. ‘When she gets the ball, she’s so low. She’s got a great touch.’

Jansone displayed her versatility early in the first half, when she made the first three-pointer she attempted.

Freeman knew what her team was up against in Jansone. All week she told her Orangewomen the only way to contain Jansone was to deny her the ball.

They didn’t.

‘We definitely didn’t front (Jansone) like coach told us to,’ freshman Tierra Jackson said. ‘She told us to front her, and we just didn’t. That hurt us a lot because she got a lot of easy buckets that shouldn’t have happened.’

Freeman tried several lineups to combat the strength of Siena’s inside game. Midway through the first half, when Jansone had already scored nine points, Freeman inserted Jill Norton for Shannon Perry to play with Jackson and April Jean. The move gave SU a big lineup of three first-year players.

In the second half, Freeman used man-to-man defense and kept center Maja Omanovic on the bench. She put the more athletic Jackson on Jansone.

Nothing worked. Jackson and Jean — a junior-college transfer — received a rude introduction to Division I. The Saints outscored SU, 38-28, in the paint, and the experienced frontcourt duo of Basko, guarded primarily by Jean, and Jansone combined to score 47 points.

‘It could have been anyone, and they would still be freshmen,’ Freeman said. ‘But I would say that the inside we played tonight is the best that I’ve seen over the last couple of games that we have played.’

After the game, Jansone giggled about her splendid performance. She’d already slid back to her usual affability.

‘(Being aggressive) is great in the game,’ Castelli said. ‘She definitely knows when to be mean.’

Published on November 17, 2002 at 12:00 pm