NEW ROCHELLE, NY – The streaking Iona College men’s basketball team raced to a 79-41 victory over Marist Sunday afternoon at the Hynes Athletics Center to move into sole possession of first place in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference standings.
After Friday’s 100-96 overtime victory at Rider, the Gaels (12-6, 6-1 MAAC) tied Fairfield for the top spot. Never trailing on Sunday, Iona’s win marks its fourth straight victory and 17th in its last 19 home games. The Gaels 38-point victory margin was its best since 2006 against Canisius.
Freshman Sean Armand led the Gaels with 22 points off the bench, including 6-of-8 three-point attempts. The six trifectas was one more than Iona’s previous rookie record, met most recently by teammate Kyle Smyth last year. While Armand continued to impress Gael faithful after his 17 points in reserve against Rider, the Brooklyn native is beginning to gain more confidence in his game.
“It starts in practice; I’ve been working hard in practice and in the gym after practice with some of the older guys. I’ve been doing it in practice, so they believe in my ability to do it in a game,” said Armand.
Fouling out with four minutes left, junior Mike Glover scored a mere six points, falling below his MAAC-leading 21.5 average, and was held without a point in the first half. The MAAC’s No. 2 rebounder (10.5 rpg), led Iona with nine boards. Although disappointed with not having a typical performance, Glover lauded his freshman teammate’s performance this weekend that included 39 points in the Gaels’ two wins.
It’s a good thing for our freshman Sean,” Glover said. Huge, 22 points, that’s major for a freshman. If I don’t have a good night, or Scottie doesn’t have a good night it’s great that we have someone like Sean to step up off the bench.”
The Gaels No. 2 scorer, junior Scott Machado was also held to just six points, but dished out eight assists to help his 8.4 per game average ranked second in the NCAA. Senior Rashon Dwight and junior Jermel Jenkins added ten points each. Iona’s bench outscored the Marist reserves 47-17.
That’s the thing about our team, we have a deep team,” said Dwight. Teams are going to key in on Scotty and Glove and guys are going to step up, like Sean and the rest of the bench today.”
Marist sophomore guard Sam Prescott, his team’s leading scorer (10.5 ppg), topped the Red Foxes with 10 points.
Putting aside the low-scoring afternoon from his two stars, head coach Tim Cluess was relieved that his squad did not take Marist lightly after the emotional win at Rider. Yet he was pleased with the strong effort by the Gael bench and defense.
I think sometimes you can by looking at a team’s record, you can be deceived by it. I reminded our guys that this was a team that played a tight game with Siena on Friday night so they were not to be taken lightly,” Cluess said. We came out a little bit flat offensively, but our defensive intensity picked up a lot. Today we relied on our defense and our bench gave us a great lift.”
Smyth nailed a three, followed by a Dwight put back to give the Gaels a 5-0 lead at 17:52. In the next 48 seconds, Marist (4-15, 3-4 MAAC) answered with two free throws from junior guard R.J. Hall and a field goal credited to sophomore guard Sam Prescott on Iona senior forward Alejo Rodriguez’s goaltend to make the score 5-4.
Hall’s three-pointer tied the score at nine, but that was as close as the visitors would get to a lead in the contest. Armand came off the Iona bench for field goal and a three, giving the hosts a 17-11 edge with 12:15 to halftime. Stretching their lead to 17, the Gaels held Marist without a point until freshman forward Menelik Watson hit a layup at 3:55. The tally ended a 19-0 run for Iona. With eleven seconds left, Jenkins gave Iona a 34-16 halftime lead with a layup off a steal.
Jenkins, Fields and Dwight led Iona in the first half with seven apiece. Sophomore forward Chris Pelcher hauled down six rebounds, as Rodriguez played only seven first-half minutes with two fouls. Hall hit five points for Marist.
Glover finally got on the board with a soaring dunk with 1:51 gone in the second half to give the Gaels a 24-point edge, their largest so far. After Watson’s field goal at 17:46, Iona ran away from the Red Foxes on a 7-1 surge over the next four minutes for a 47-19 lead.
Just after Smyth’s three put the Gaels up by 41, their largest lead of the season, with 4:09 left, Glover picked up his fifth foul, leaving the game with a mere six points, a season-low total for the junior,
Outscoring Iona 45-25 in the second half, the Gaels shot 47.3% from the field for the game to Marist’s 30.2%, and out rebounded the Red Foxes 36-28. Marist committed 20 turnovers to nine for the Gaels.
With the Gaels strong performance so far this season, Cluess has great hopes for his squad, going forward in the season. What about holding the MAAC’s first-place position in mid-January?
Better than not being there,” Cluess quipped.
Iona travels to Buffalo next weekend to face Niagara and Canisius, then returns home against Rider on Thursday, January 27 at 7:30 pm.
—ICGaels.com
ADDITIONAL PHOTOS:
All Photo Credits Jen Parente
