Back in the Big Dance Groove! Iona wins MAAC tourney, clinches NCAA trip

Iona players celebrate as Gaels punched NCAA Tournament ticket Saturday with MAAC championship win over Marist. (Photo by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — Rick Pitino heralded the culture change he and his staff had made in the days leading up to Saturday’s Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference tournament championship game, highlighting the support his Iona program received as the Hall of Fame coach put his own stamp on a traditional Northeast mid-major power.

What Pitino did not change, though, was Iona’s winning ways. That kind of cosmetic enhancement was not necessary.

Iona, for the sixth time in eight years, is MAAC champion after exploding over the final 10-plus minutes of the second half to break a 46-all tie and defeat 11th-seed Marist, 76-55, to earn its entry into the NCAA Tournament.

“I’m so proud of them for what they’ve given me this year,” Pitino said of his players as Iona extended its conference record with its 14th all-time tournament crown. “But it’s just starting for us. We’re just starting this. We have firm belief that we can go on and play good basketball.”

“I knew the game was on the line,” Berrick JeanLouis said as he recalled blocking a dunk attempt by Marist’s Isaiah Brickner that would have given the Red Foxes the lead, but instead triggered a stretch where Iona ran its opponent off the floor by a 30-9 margin over the rest of the evening. “We had to make big defensive plays, and the only thing going through my head was, ‘win, win, win and get stops.’”

Regular season MAAC champions before a conference tournament run in which they won each of their three games by double digits and two by 20 points or more, the Gaels (27-7) had to earn their invite to the dance floor Saturday, as Marist threw everything it had at the top seed. Playing their fourth game in five days to conclude an historic advance through the bracket, the Red Foxes matched Iona shot for shot over 36 minutes, not going quietly until a turnover deep in their own end of the court led to a Daniss Jenkins 3-pointer that kick-started a 19-2 close to the game that allowed Iona to join the field of 68.

“Like I always say, our offense is always there,” said Jenkins, who was named the tournament’s most valuable player following a championship game where he scored 22 of his 27 points in the second half. “If we can get a stop, there’s no stopping us.”

“If we can get a stop and get on the break, Coach keeps telling us all night to stay with it and we’ll have our run. So that’s how we look at it. We look for plays like what Berrick made to spark our run, and that’s what we did. We were all just playing off that energy from that play.”

The coronation was on from there, as Marist came up empty down the stretch and Iona was able to wear down the Red Foxes, putting away a second conference title in Pitino’s three years at the helm. It remains to be seen where the Gaels’ postseason fate will take them, but the championship DNA and culture in the gene pool in New Rochelle will keep Iona alive until the buzzer sounds. Its curator would have it no other way.

“All I’m thinking about is getting these guys to where they want to go,” Pitino said. “I’ve got the best players in the world. If somebody could match this culture, I want to see it, because we’ve built a culture. I know they’ll bring great intensity, but we’ll be prepared, whoever we play. We know what it’s all about. These guys are up for the task.”