NEW ROCHELLE, NY — The Iona College men’s basketball put together a furious run to overcome a late 10-point deficit to defeat MAAC foe Saint Peter’s 73-69 this evening on ESPNU at the Hynes Center.
Facing a 58-48 deficit with 4:24 remaining, the Maroom & Gold (8-7, 2-1 MAAC) rallied together a 14-0 run in less than three minutes to take a four-point lead. Schadrac Casimir and Rickey McGill knocked down back-to-back 3-pointers to cap off the spurt. Casimir later converted another long-range attempt to push the lead to five with 23 seconds to go before TK Edogi finished off an alley-oop off the glass from McGill to put the exclamation point on the comeback.
McGill led the Gaels with 19 points on the evening to go with five rebounds, four assists and three steals. Casimir shot 5-of-8 from beyond the arc towards 18 points and four rebounds while Zach Lewis posted a career-high 11 assists. Edogi ended the night with 12 points, six rebounds, two steals and a block in 24 minutes of action. Iona also forced 20 turnovers and created 26 points off those turnovers.
Saint Peter’s (7-7, 1-2 MAAC) was led by a game-high of 20 points from Samuel Idowu. Davauhnte Turner and Mamadou Ndiaye combined for 23 points and 10 rebounds off the bench, helping the Peacocks to a 34-25 rebounding advantage. In the effort, Saint Peter’s shot 51.1 percent (24-for-47) from the field compared to 43.9 percent (25-for-57) for the Gaels.
The Peacocks jumped out early in the contest by scoring the first 11 points before pushing the margin back to 11 points at 20-9 with less than 10 minutes to go in the first half. Iona put together its first rally of the evening to eventually take the lead at the end of the half after Jan Svandrlik hit a right wing 3-pointer to give the hosts a 29-28 lead at the break.
Idowu led all scorers with 11 points in the opening 20 minutes while Casimir and Svandrlik shared the Iona lead of six points a piece. The Maroon & Gold shot just 33.3 percent (10-for-30) from the field in the first period, which included 6-of-18 (33.3 percent) from beyond the arc.
The momentum carried into the early stages of the second half for the Gaels as a McGill jumper pushed the advantage to 40-33 less than four minutes into the period. However, a 25-9 run from the Peacocks afforded the visitors the 10-point lead with 4:24 remaining before the Gaels made their second long run of the game to edge out the victory. The Gaels outscored the Peacocks 25-11 in the final four minutes while also creating five turnovers in that span.
Iona moved to 6-3 on the season when hitting 10 or more 3-pointers in a game. Additionally, the 19 assists were the most since the Gaels dished out 20 at Holy Cross in a 82-68 win on Tuesday, December 19. Tonight also marked only the third home game of the season (3-0) for the Maroon & Gold, first since Tuesday, December 12.