GIANT KILLERS! Estrada, Saint Peter’s end Iona dynasty with last-second shot

Aaron Estrada goes up for game-winning shot as Saint Peter’s ended Iona’s bid for fifth straight MAAC championship with third last-second win over Gaels this season. (Photo by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — Aaron Estrada’s Wednesday began with distinction.

It ended with the death of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference’s most prolific dynasty.

Hours after the Saint Peter’s freshman was named the MAAC Rookie of the Year, Estrada validated his recognition with arguably the biggest shot of his young career, a jumper from the left side of the foul line that extinguished Iona’s dream of a fifth consecutive conference tournament championship and vaulted the Peacocks to a 56-54 victory that guaranteed the coronation of a new kingpin by week’s end at Boardwalk Hall.

“To be honest, I was thinking of just getting the best shot I could possibly get, and see how my defender was playing me,” Estrada said of his rainbow over the outstretched right arm of Ben Perez, a dagger that gave Saint Peter’s its third win over the Gaels this season, each one coming in the final seconds on a game-winning shot by one of head coach Shaheen Holloway’s six freshmen. “I just took it from there when I got the ball.”

“I was telling these guys they can’t get too high, they can’t get too low,” Holloway reflected, referencing the Peacocks’ offensive struggles — Saint Peter’s shot only 25 percent from the floor — against the four-time defending MAAC champions. “You’ve got to go out and just keep playing, keep digging, and for the most part, our guys kept playing defense. I knew the offense would come.”

Saint Peter’s (18-12) ended Iona’s MAAC tournament win streak at 13 and denied the Gaels a 10th-straight semifinal appearance with a grinding, methodical defensive game reminiscent of its former coach, John Dunne. With a deeper bench to combat the shorter Iona rotation, the Peacocks held a 22-18 lead at halftime and didn’t let Iona get away until the Gaels (12-17) found separation after an Isaiah Washington 3-pointer made the score 50-42 in favor of seventh-seed Iona with 5:51 remaining in regulation.

The second-seeded Peacocks would not go away from there, conceding just one field goal for the rest of the game and feasting off Iona’s inability to handle the basketball, as well as a technical foul against acting head coach Tra Arnold that allowed Estrada to make two free throws to punctuate a 9-0 run that erased the Gaels’ advantage a mere 91 seconds later.

“It’s a tough loss,” the reticent Arnold, visibly shaken, struggled to say after the game while senior forward Tajuan Agee was inconsolable next to him, his career having been brought to a screeching halt. “They gave us everything they had. Agee played his heart out, so did (E.J.) Crawford, so did Perez.”

“I just turned the ball over too many times,” a succinct Washington admitted. “I took bad shots. If I took care of the ball today, the game would have been a lot different.”

Iona still found a way to score four points in a row to retake the lead, but Quinn Taylor quickly cut the deficit to one for Saint Peter’s when he was fouled by Washington immediately after securing a rebound on a missed 3-pointer by Doug Edert. The Gaels’ point guard committed the same mistake inside the final minute of regulation when he fouled KC Ndefo, who split a pair of free throws to knot the score at 54 apiece. Iona had a chance to pull ahead again, but Agee’s go-ahead layup sailed wide and was snared by Ndefo, who was able to call timeout while trapped near the sideline, giving Saint Peter’s 16 seconds to set the stage for Estrada to follow in the footsteps of classmates Daryl Banks III and Matthew Lee, both of whom were responsible for last-second heroics against the Gaels in the regular season.

As Iona heads home for an uncharacteristic early exit, the Peacocks await the winner of Thursday’s quarterfinal between Rider and Niagara in a semifinal where the program with no dominant player or set starting lineup will try to take its unorthodox mentality to the precipice of a championship.

“I don’t worry about that, I don’t have these guys worrying about that,” Holloway said with regard to the criticism Saint Peter’s has faced for its selfless, democratic system. “We don’t care what people say, we just go out and play basketball, give it our all and play for each other. That’s the only thing that matters.”