NEW ROCHELLE, NY – The Iona College men’s basketball team used a decisive second half run in a 70-52 victory over Saint Peter’s in Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference action at the Hynes Athletics Center. Holding a two-point lead just under seven minutes into the second frame, the Gaels (9-6, 3-1 MAAC) scored 17 of the game’s next 20 points to earn the win over the Peacocks (8-7, 3-1 MAAC).
Junior Mike Glover (Bronx, NY) scored a game-high 23 points and grabbed seven rebounds to lead the Maroon & Gold. He hit his first 11 shots of the contests before an up and under layup with contact spun off the rim and snapped a streak of 18 straight field goals made dating back to Monday’s game at Siena by the Gaels’ leading scorer.
Senior Rashon Dwight (Newark, NJ) chipped in 12 points including two three-pointers during the second half run including the first that started the 17-3 Iona spurt. Junior Scott Machado (Queens, NY) had 10 points and eight assists while freshman Sean Armand (Brooklyn, NY) drained three three-pointers for nine points off the bench.
Four tie scores and eight lead changes marked a back-and-forth first half as the two teams jockeyed for position to open the contest. Saint Peter’s largest lead of the contest was five points after senior Wesley Jenkins converted a layup to make the score 9-4 at the 15:09 mark. With the Peacocks leading 22-18 with 6:17 left, the scoring pace picked up and both teams scored on 10 consecutive possessions. Two Ryan Bacon free throws put the score at 32-32 at 2:05. After two straight turnovers, sophomore Chris Pelcher’s (Albany, NY) transition dunk was followed by two free throws by the Peacocks’ Jeron Belin to knot the score at 34-34. Junior Jermel Jenkins (Union, NJ) beat the first half clock with a running baseline jumper as the Gaels took a two-point advantage into the break.
Scoring was at a minimum for both squads out of the locker rooms. Saint Peter’s knotted the score at 36-36 on a Steven Samuels’ layup, 1:05 into the second stanza. The score was deadlocked until Machado converted a layup nearly four minutes later. The third bucket of the second half came with 12:15 remaining as Dwight converted his first trifecta to spark the decisive 17-3 run over the next four minutes. Iona held on to its double-digit advantage the rest of the way and pulled out the 18-point win.
The Gaels shot 51.9% from the field for the game and held Saint Peter’s to just 35.4%. Iona’s defense in the second half held its opponent to a season-low 18 points and a 26.1 percentage from the field. The Maroon & Gold was out rebounded 35-32 in the contest. Iona’s 20 assists to nine turnovers marked the eighth time in the last 11 games they to squad has tallied 20 or more helpers and the third straight game under 10 turnovers.
Wesley Jenkins had 11 points to lead the Peacocks. Dwight was instrumental in holding his cousin and high school teammate to just a single-point in the second half. Samuels recorded 10 points in support of Jenkins. Bacon had a team-high six boards while senior Nick Leon tallied four of his squad’s seven assists in the loss.
The Gaels put their unbeaten (3-0) MAAC record at home on the line on Sunday afternoon when they host Loyola at 2:00 pm. The Greyhounds evened their MAAC record to 2-2 with an 82-67 win at Manhattan this evening.
–ICGAELS.com–
No photos?
Why don’t you put up photos with your sports stories?
sometimes we do
it depends because the AD at Iona College sends the stories, sometimes with pix and sometimes no. Depends on them.