Iona’s magnificent season comes to end at hands of UConn in NCAA Tournament

Daniss Jenkins tallied 14 points for Iona, but Gaels were unable to hold halftime lead in NCAA Tournament loss to UConn. (Photo by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)

ALBANY, N.Y. — Rick Pitino was brutally honest in assessing his Iona team’s chances against UConn leading up to Friday's contest, stating his Gaels essentially had to play a perfect game to defeat the Huskies.

In the end, UConn’s power and physicality proved to be too much for the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference champions, who led the fourth-seeded Huskies at halftime but were unable to sustain the advantage in an 87-63 loss at MVP Arena.

“I thought we had a legitimate chance of beating them going into the game,” Pitino lamented as Iona’s quest for a first official NCAA Tournament victory is prolonged at least one more season. “But we came out in the second half and they just dominated us, so they deserve all the congratulations.”

“I’m very excited for these guys. They had a hell of a year and gave me everything they could give me. We played a really good schedule this year and that was by far the best team we have faced.”

Iona (27-8) relied on a flurry of 3-point shots to pave the way in the first half of its West Regional opener, as Berrick JeanLouis and Daniss Jenkins torched the nets to keep pace with UConn in the opening minutes en route to a 39-37 halftime advantage. However, after shutting sophomore guard Jordan Hawkins out in the opening stanza, the Husky marksman came out firing after the intermission, converting a 4-point play and then burying a 3-pointer shortly thereafter to ignite a 17-4 run out of the locker room that flipped the game on its head and forced the Gaels to play from behind.

“They just came out more aggressive,” Walter Clayton, Jr. remarked of UConn’s second-half explosion. “They gained all the momentum and we could never get it back.”

Iona traded baskets with UConn for a majority of the second half, but was ultimately done in by the decided edge in athleticism and toughness that earned the Huskies a second-round date with Saint Mary’s on Sunday. For the Gaels, though, a 14-game win streak and a MAAC championship are the mementos that will travel back to New Rochelle while Pitino and his players assess the future.

“I just told the guys I appreciate everybody that was a part of this season,” Jenkins said of his postgame speech to his teammates. “A loss hurts, but I told them, ‘don’t hang your heads.’ A loss doesn’t define us. We’ve just got to learn from it.”