Defense, veteran leadership carry Iona to win in opener

E.J. Crawford's 14 points led Iona as Gaels opened third straight MAAC championship defense with gritty victory over Albany. (Photo by Vincent Simone/NYC Buckets)

NEW ROCHELLE, NY -- Much had been made of Iona's latest roster overhaul this offseason, with only two incumbent players from last season's third consecutive Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference championship-winning outfit serving as the latest dose of misdirected criticism for one of the true mid-major dynasties in the college basketball landscape of recent years.

The names have changed, the faces have changed, and the method of victory -- compared to some of the shootouts of the past -- may have also changed, but the result remained the same Friday night.

After allowing the visiting Albany Great Danes to get out to an 11-1 head start that soon became a 25-10 advantage with just over six minutes remaining in the first half, the Gaels gradually and methodically chipped away at the chasm on the scoreboard, seizing control down the stretch to prevail, downing the one-time America East Conference power in a 72-68 war of attrition inside the Hynes Athletics Center.

"I'm really proud of my team tonight," head coach Tim Cluess remarked as Iona saw four of its players post double-digit point totals, paced by 14 markers from junior forward E.J. Crawford. "They fought back from a large deficit early on and they showed real heart, and I was really happy to see them compete at that level. We have a lot of growing to do, obviously, on both sides of the court and getting used to each other, but I did like what I saw in them being tough enough to gut it out."

The toughness revealed itself early and often on a damp Friday evening just north of the New York city limits, as Albany landed a haymaker on Iona's championship jaw, scoring eleven unanswered points after Crawford's free throw to break a scoreless draw. Iona's deficit remained a double-digit hole for almost the entire opening stanza, until a 16-2 run punctuated by back-to-back three-pointers from freshman Andrija Ristanovic pulled the Gaels within one point before the Great Danes got a triple from Australian forward Cameron Healy to take a 30-26 lead into the intermission. But even in the face of being outplayed in the initial proceedings, the message within the walls that have seen five NCAA Tournament teams develop over time was one of calmness and faith.

"We just had to keep our heads," said Rickey McGill, who rebounded from a sluggish start to come one assist shy of a double-double, tallying 12 points in the process, including a key five-point swing in the second half that helped Iona establish control. "It wasn't nothing bad. Everybody's new to each other, so we were trying to get the feel of everybody and just had to keep going hard, and that's what we did."

Iona responded in the second half by placing Albany squarely on its heels, ramping up the pressure on the defensive end to force 22 turnovers on the night and outplay the Danes at the style head coach Will Brown has honed to near-perfection in the Capital Region, taking the lead for the first time since the opening minutes when Ben Perez drained a three to put the Gaels ahead by two, at 46-44, with just over eleven minutes to play. Albany fought back to retake a three-point advantage, but an 8-0 run capped off by a McGill jumper, followed by a steal and long-distance shot from the senior point guard, gave the hosts a lead that would not be relinquished.

"I just played my game," McGill said. "I don't get down on myself. It's my last year, so I'm trying to compete every day, compete every game. That's what I gotta do to lead my team, hit the big shots."

Perez and fellow junior college transfer Tajuan Agee each recorded 10 points to join elder statesmen McGill and Crawford as Iona's most productive performers. For Albany, Ahmad Clark's 21 points led all scorers as the junior hopes to fill the void left by former program mainstays Joe Cremo and David Nichols, each of whom transferred during the offseason, landing at Villanova and Florida State, respectively.

"For us coming in here, it was about learning what we have," said Brown. "I'm proud of Ahmad, because he's really grown from a year ago. He just wasn't given an opportunity last year because David played so many minutes, and every time he got on the floor last year, he was trying to prove to me -- and I get it -- that he should be on the floor, and he tried to do it by making big plays all the time. I think now, he's in a comfort zone, he knows I trust him, he's got a lot of confidence in his ability, and now I'm happy for him. He was awesome in our two scrimmages, and it carried over to the game tonight. He's only going to get better, but he was as good as anybody in the game tonight, in my opinion."

The positives to be gleaned were felt just as much in the winning locker room, where Cluess was impressed with two things in particular: The defensive effort -- something for which his teams have been wrongfully maligned in the past -- and the maturation of Crawford as an interior player.

"He has (grown up)," Cluess said of Crawford. "I think a year ago or two years ago, if he'd shot from the three-point line like this, he'd end up with two or three points, so his game has changed so much now that he can drive the ball, he can post you up. And he wants to. I really like the diversity that's coming around in his game, and a lot of it's due to the physical condition and how much he's worked on his body."

"I think our defensive intensity and our pressure helped us out a lot. I think we got a couple of turnovers, we got out off some rebounds and got down the court better. I thought we moved the ball, attacked the rim, and did a lot of things that were good. We just have to worry about ourselves a little bit now. We know that we're going to play some really good teams in this stretch, but it's about us getting better right now so we can be where we want to be as the season moves along. I think we have room for a lot of upside."