Iona extends surge with fifth straight win, and eighth straight against Manhattan

Rickey McGill was catalyst behind game-changing 16-2 Iona run in second half as Gaels defeated Manhattan Friday night. (Photo by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)

NEW YORK -- Like death and taxes, Iona's annual ascent toward the top of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference standings is once again bordering on absolute certainty.

Two weeks removed from a fourth consecutive loss that had cast aspersions on whether or not the Gaels were formidable enough to win an unprecedented fourth consecutive MAAC tournament crown, the reigning champion is making its latest push at the most opportune of times, saving one of its more resounding statements for the expense of a longtime adversary once again.

Trailing Manhattan at halftime, Iona needed less than seven minutes to take the lead, and then retake an advantage it would hold for the remainder of the evening Friday, using a 16-2 run to pull away from the Jaspers en route to a 66-52 victory at Draddy Gymnasium in the lone regular season encounter between the two programs, earning a fifth straight win in the process to erase any doubt that may have lingered from the recent four-game slide earlier this month.

"We just had to come out and play our game," said Rickey McGill, who scored 13 points and was the chief contributor in the game-defining stretch that saw the Gaels (12-15, 10-6 MAAC) score an eighth triumph in a row against Manhattan since the Jaspers defeated Iona in 2015 to repeat as MAAC champions. "We knew they were going to come out and play their hardest against us because it's a rivalry game, so we just had to slow down a little bit and try to play our game."

For McGill, who verbally committed to Manhattan out of high school before changing his mind and signing with Iona, the prospect of potentially closing his collegiate career undefeated against the Gaels' chief rival was a proposition he appeared to enjoy being informed of before serving up a more diplomatic answer seconds later.

"Hmmm," he proclaimed in the wake of having extended the longest streak of success at the hands of the Jaspers since Iona authored a 13-game string of victories between 1983 and 1989. "It's my last season, so to go out like that -- 8-0 against a rival -- that's a pretty good accomplishment."

In the first few minutes, however, it seemed as though any positive outcome on the part of the visitors would have to be earned against Manhattan (9-18, 7-8 MAAC) and its deceptive matchup zone defense, which made it difficult for the Gaels to penetrate the lane. As a result, only one Iona field goal in the first half -- a transition dunk by McGill off a steal and run-out that capped a 9-0 run and put the Jaspers in a 20-15 hole -- was made inside the three-point arc. Manhattan, who entered Friday's contest having won five of six with its lone loss in that span coming in a narrow two-point setback to Siena, responded with a 13-3 run to regain control as the opening stanza drew to a close, but Asante Gist -- once again thrust into a starting role due to Iona's seven-man rotation -- answered a Tykei Greene three-pointer with one of his own from the left wing, beating the buzzer and turning a five-point game into a more manageable two-point affair, swinging precious momentum in the process as both teams headed into the locker room.

"That was a big one," McGill said of Gist's off-balance shot. "We needed that one because we were missing towards the end a little bit. It happened to go in, so that was a big one for us."

The Gaels scored nine straight points to begin the second half after spotting Manhattan the first bucket after the intermission, but the Jaspers fired back with five unanswered points to tie the score at 35-all. It would be as close as the hosts would get, though, as back-to-back threes from Ben Perez and McGill kick-started the aforementioned 16-2 run that tipped the scales of what had been an evenly-matched contest, and left Steve Masiello effusively praising Iona's effort while also highlighting the growth of his own roster.

"We know what our guys are capable of," Manhattan's head coach assessed. "Sometimes young guys get one-dimensional, but that's part of growth, that's part of maturity. You can't let a couple of missed shots affect you, good or bad, and I thought we did that a little bit tonight. They're trying to do the right things, but we just didn't do them as well as Iona did tonight."

With its latest victory, Iona is now among a tie with Rider for second place in the MAAC standings, a half-game behind first-place Canisius, who visits New Rochelle Sunday afternoon. By virtue of having defeated Rider on January 25, the Gaels would currently be the No. 2 seed in the MAAC tournament if the season ended today. However, the focus is not on Albany, but rather the Golden Griffins, who now arrive for what has become an increasingly pivotal late-season matchup with a myriad of postseason implications that may have appeared impossible just one fortnight ago.

"I'm satisfied for today's win, and I'll let you know about the next one," Tim Cluess candidly opined with regard to his Iona team's positioning in the MAAC race. "I don't really get carried away with where we are. I get more carried away with how hard we work every day, and just trying to grind it out every day. Obviously, I'm proud of our guys for fighting back for sure, but I don't want them to get any satisfaction right now. This is a time where they really have to be hungry."