Iona runs past Siena, ups MAAC streak to 9-0

Elijah Joiner flushes dagger in second half as Iona handled Siena Tuesday. (Photo by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)

NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. — The true mark of a champion is its ability to survive a B or C-level game, yet still manage to make short work of its opposition.

Scarier, still, is when said team possesses mounds of talent that is still a collective unit of untapped potential. And in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, the one team that appears to possess both qualities in abundance put each on display Tuesday.

Mired in a defensive battle for most of the evening against longtime rival Siena, Iona overcame an off night from its offense to clamp down on the defensive end, forcing the visiting Saints into 18 turnovers and flustering them en masse with Rick Pitino’s patented full-court press in a commanding 74-57 victory inside the Hynes Athletics Center.

“Whether we’re home or away, (the) defense gotta travel,” Elijah Joiner remarked as the Gaels used their veteran instinct and suffocating ball pressure to improve to 17-3 and remain undefeated in nine MAAC games. “That’s the first thing we always keep in mind. We feel like we’re a physical team. We try to be the hammer and not the nail.”

“I think the best part of this Iona team is all their guys are stars in their own role,” Siena head coach Carmen Maciariello assessed. “They know what they’re going to get from (Quinn) Slazinski and (Dylan) van Eyck, they know what they’re going to get from Joiner and (Ryan) Myers. They wear you down.”

Iona survived a rock fight in the first half, thriving off Siena's giveaways to take a 29-21 halftime lead despite a lackluster opening stanza where the Saints (6-8, 3-3 MAAC) did not concede space under the rim to the Gaels’ frontcourt, nor did they allow Iona to take advantage of the 3-point shot. While the hosts led for the duration of the evening, Siena appeared poised to strike when it trimmed its deficit to seven points early in the second half, but a pair of turnovers led to five quick Iona points that kick-started a 21-5 run to put the game out of reach.

“Careless,” Maciariello said, describing Siena’s lack of execution. “We didn’t move our stack up in a press break to be able to have more space, we didn’t ball fake. Little details matter.”

Pitino has made an emphasis on learning the nuances of the game, a discipline he highlighted in Iona’s win at Quinnipiac Sunday, stating the Gaels were “a five or a six” on a one-to-ten scale of execution. Although still far from his ultimate vision later in the year, the Hall of Fame mentor has been able to find value in his young charges finding innovative ways to win while showcasing their maturation.

“I think defensively, it says a lot because our deflections are really, really high,” he said. “We’re very active with our hands, but we’re nowhere near where we want our basketball program to be. It’s where we’re trying to get this basketball program, and it’s nowhere near a Louisville or Kentucky, but we’re trying to get it to that point.”

With the halfway point of Iona’s conference season coming Sunday against Saint Peter’s, where a win would be the 800th of Pitino’s illustrious career, the talk of the Gaels running the MAAC table is now a serious possibility. Only twice before has it happened in league history, with La Salle accomplishing the feat in 1987-88 and 1989-90 in its run of three consecutive conference championships.

“That’s something that we’re not necessarily thinking about in March, but we’re thinking of taking it one game at a time,” Joiner reflected. “As long as we can go undefeated game by game, we’ll eventually get there.”

“I think it’s very, very difficult to do,” Pitino cautioned. “What I tell them is that it’s not probable, but it’s possible. The way to have a chance of doing it is you have to have great respect for every team you play. And they do.”