Iona's veteran trio pushes Gaels into MAAC tourney semis

Tajuan Agee's 26 points were one shy of career-best as Iona survived upset bid from Saint Peter's to reach MAAC tournament semifinals for ninth straight year. (Photo by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)

ALBANY, NY -- On a team that retained only two incumbent players from its third consecutive conference title-winning outfit, championship muscle memory becomes all the more important.

Such is the case for Iona, which has been limited by injuries and a short rotation, not to mention the adjustment period for its new batch of talent to acclimate itself to Tim Cluess' system. And on Friday, as the Gaels opened a quest for what would be an historic fourth straight Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference tournament crown, it was only fitting that the core forged by hardware was what carried the reigning champions to the finish line.

Behind 26 points from E.J. Crawford -- a total that was also matched by Tajuan Agee -- and a gritty 18 from Rickey McGill, Iona overcame an upset bid from Saint Peter's for the third year in a row, reaching the semifinal round of the MAAC tournament for the ninth time in as many seasons under head coach Tim Cluess by withstanding the scrappy Peacocks in a 73-71 barnburner at Times Union Center, where the Gaels are 18-4 in Cluess' tenure.

"Experience plays a big role," McGill said of Iona's familiarity on the postseason stage, "but we're just trying to come out and play Iona basketball."

For most of the night, Iona basketball involved the Gaels (15-15) not being able to pull away from Saint Peter's, who acquitted itself valiantly just 24 hours removed from needing overtime to defeat Marist in Thursday's tournament opener. After conceding a 10-2 start, the Peacocks gradually chipped away at Iona's lead, ultimately taking a one-point advantage at halftime and opening up a five-point cushion before a 15-3 Gael run put Saint Peter's in a 64-57 hole and swung the pendulum back to friendlier confines for the three-time reigning MAAC champions.

"For the two players that have been here (McGill and Crawford), that's a big piece of it," said Cluess of the experience of his upperclassmen contributing to a heightened sense of what it takes to win. "Everybody else has not been there before, so we were just trying to see how they were going to play in a playoff game. I think Tajuan gave us a great answer, and some of our other guys were able to survive tonight and do a few things here and there to help us."

Regardless, Saint Peter's had one last rally, riding the defiant last stand of senior point guard Davauhnte Turner, who finished with 23 points, to the doorstep of an upset. Turner's three three-point field goals down the stretch brought the Peacocks within one point, but after drawing Agee's fifth foul with two seconds remaining in regulation, Turner -- and 80 percent free throw shooter -- missed the front end of a one-and-one, and KC Ndefo's rebound attempt fell into a held ball that Iona won with the possession arrow in its favor.

"I feel like I let my team down with that last free throw," a humble Turner stated. "It kind of happened last year, when I got fouled and had three shots, missed two, made one. It's kind of hard."

"I told him in the locker room that we didn't lose the game because he missed the free throw," an emotional Shaheen Holloway reflected of Turner's lasting final impression. "He's been carrying us all year. If it wasn't for him, we wouldn't even be in this position. I thought we lost the game in the first ten minutes. Iona came out and jumped us a little bit, had us on our heels, and we were just kind of fighting back the whole way. I thought McGill really was the difference in the whole game. He was causing havoc, and that was the difference."

Iona also managed to survive and advance despite being outrebounded by a 32-19 margin, on top of allowing Saint Peter's to shoot over 56 percent from the floor, but the 17 Peacock turnovers forced by the victors helped mitigate those two factors, along with dominating performances by the Gaels' elite troika.

"It speaks volumes that some of the other players allowed them to do that and didn't force the issue themselves," said Cluess. "They found the hot hand, shared the ball, and did whatever detail we needed them to do, so I'm proud of them for that."