Pitino’s home opener spoiled as Iona falls to Morgan State

 

Tahlik Chavez led Iona with 17 points, but Gaels were defeated by Morgan State Tuesday in home opener. (Photo by Anthony Sorbellini/Iona Athletics)

Rick Pitino has made it a point to note early in his tenure at Iona that this first year of his marriage to the Gaels’ program would be difficult due to the inherent learning of a new system with a roster on which three-quarters of its players are new.

Tuesday afternoon provided a harsh dose of truth to that statement.

Just three days removed from a spirited victory at Hofstra that was Pitino’s first since replacing Tim Cluess and former interim coach Tra Arnold in March, Iona spotted visiting Morgan State a 17-4 start in the opening minutes and was ultimately unable to overcome the deficit for more than a minute, losing its Hynes Athletics Center opener by the final of 83-72 to the Bears, who got 47 combined points from forwards Troy Baxter and Lagio Grantsaan, who scored 25 and 22, respectively.

“I don’t think you’ll win too many games when you let the other team shoot 11-for-19 from the 3-point line,” a terse Pitino lamented. “We turned around and panicked, and took bad threes. They really exploited our five men with the 3-point shot.”

Iona (1-2) appeared overmatched in the opening minutes, surrendering the first nine points of the afternoon to Morgan State, who took advantage of open spaces on the perimeter and a strong inside game to establish tempo in the first stanza. The Gaels would fight back from their deficit, though, utilizing a 14-4 run in the waning moments of the half to forge a brief lead after a 3-pointer by Tahlik Chavez, whose 17 points led the hosts in the losing effort. However, Baxter would respond with one of his five 3-point field goals on the ensuing possession to even the score going to the intermission.

Iona regained the lead shortly after the horn after Berrick JeanLouis and Dylan van Eyck started to spark the Gaels’ transition game, but Morgan State (2-1) punched back with an 18-4 run to shut the door. The Gaels would draw within eight points later in the second half, but eight straight markers from the visitors — the last of which came on a transition 3-pointer off the hands of Baxter — proved to be the dagger.

JeanLouis’ 15 points and 11 rebounds were good for his first double-double in an Iona uniform, while Isaiah Ross and Ryan Myers tallied 12 and 10 points, respectively. However, the collective effort was surmised with a brutal candor.

“They were, really, just much better than us,” Pitino assessed. “We have no excuses. They were just much better than us.”

Iona returns to competition Friday when it visits Fairfield for its first set of Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference games. The Gaels had initially been scheduled to face Monmouth, and then Quinnipiac after Monmouth had a positive COVID-19 test, but a second pause in the Quinnipiac program forced a second rescheduling Tuesday morning.