Iona cruises past Marist to win fourth straight

Daniss Jenkins led Iona with 23 points and 10 assists as Gaels throttled Marist on road Friday. (Photo by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)

POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. — Rick Pitino has just about seen it all over almost a half-century in college basketball. Therefore, it goes without saying that it would take nothing short of a miracle to raise the Hall of Fame coach’s eyebrows.

A normally routine road victory Friday, however, qualified for the short list of things that astonished a man with over 800 victories and a pair of national championships on his ledger.

Playing shorthanded Friday at Marist after Walter Clayton, Jr. injured his thigh in a walkthrough, Pitino’s Iona team — already without Quinn Slazinski and Michael Jefferson — pulled together and embraced a next-man-up mentality, surviving a track meet in the opening minutes to stifle the Red Foxes and pull away to a commanding 84-57 victory, the Gaels’ fourth straight since a disappointing loss to SMU in the Diamond Head Classic two weeks ago.

“It takes a lot to shock me in this game, but I’m in shock tonight,” Pitino candidly observed. “When Walter Clayton got injured today, we were as down as can be because we were without three key players. I can’t say enough about (Daniss Jenkins), because he had ten assists and zero turnovers. He did all the things that he’s learned here to be a great point guard. He was brilliant, but the whole team played great. This is one of the biggest surprises I’ve had as an Iona coach.”

“I’m proud, but I’m shocked because we’re playing guys that haven’t played at all. I thought Cruz (Davis) was great, Keither (Florence) gave us a big lift. We played a brilliant game, this was by far our best game of the season. This is a night of shock for me as a basketball coach, and it takes a lot to shock me.”

Iona (11-4, 4-0 MAAC) made seven of its first ten field goal attempts as Marist attempted to keep pace with the Gaels, who rode the hot hands of Jenkins, who complemented his immaculate ball control with a game-high 23 points, Nelly Junior Joseph and Osborn Shema before Davis blossomed in the second half as the preseason Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference favorite showcased its talent and depth advantage despite an undermanned rotation.

“Coach preaches that all the time to us,” Jenkins said of the ability of Iona’s supporting cast to step up. “He says injuries are a part of the game, something we can’t control, so all we could do is next man up. The most important thing is to get the win, so that was all of our mentality. We knew the bench had to pick it up for Walt being out, so that’s what we tried to preach to the team and we did a pretty good job.”

In four MAAC games, Iona has surrendered an average of just 57 points per game, with only one opponent thus far — Canisius on December 4 — scoring over the average (the Golden Griffins tallied 60 markers against the Gaels). After a non-conference season in which Hofstra, Santa Clara and SMU all eclipsed the 80-point plateau against Iona, the need to clamp down on the defensive side of the basketball has been a major talking point in preparation, and will continue to be moving forward.

“At practice, we challenge ourselves every single day,” Jenkins revealed. “We knew early on we dropped those games because of defense, so we made a point of emphasis that we weren’t going to lose anymore games because of defense. We know if we can match our offense with our defense, we’re going to be a great team, so that’s what we try to do.”

Iona will look to keep its surge alive Sunday when it heads to Quinnipiac for the back end of a road weekend in a pivotal matchup for both teams. While the Gaels hope to keep pace with Siena as the MAAC’s lone unbeaten teams in league play, the Bobcats will seek a third consecutive win after starting the conference season 0-3. But if Pitino gets more performances like this one from his young charges, Iona will always be a tough out.

“Anytime you win on the road like this, playing this brand of basketball, you’ve got to be very excited as a basketball team,” he said. “And we played a great brand of basketball tonight. The whole team played great tonight, and you want to see that on the road. We know we’re a pretty damn good home team, but we want to really pick it up. We’ve been fighting all the way through and really haven’t played a bad game, but tonight was our best effort of the season in terms of putting everything together the right way.”