Iona’s hot shooting, veteran leadership help fend off late Monmouth rally

Asante Gist scored 18 points as Iona used 54-point first half to survive Monmouth’s second-half onslaught. (Photo by Iona College Athletics)

Throughout the course of his first season at Iona, Rick Pitino has not hesitated to mention that instilling a style of play to a program where two-thirds of the roster is new to Division I basketball would be a struggle, but a fruitful year in which several pearls of wisdom would ultimately be imparted.

The latest teaching moment occurred Friday, when a 22-point lead was nearly erased, but thanks to an offensive explosion in the first half, the Gaels were able to survive.

An opening stanza that saw Iona torch the Hynes Athletics Center nets en route to 54 points against a Monmouth team leading the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference in wins was enough to push the Gaels across the finish line despite a valiant surge from the visiting Hawks in the closing minutes, guiding the hosts to a 91-86 victory in a contest that was the fourth in eight days since returning from a program-record 51-day pause.

“I told our guys, the toughest thing in basketball — pro or college — is to play with a lead,” Pitino remarked as Iona overcame 27 turnovers with four players scoring 13 or more points. “The other team is so upset that they’re down 20, they come out with a vengeance, and it’s just human behavior. We learned a lot tonight, but the first half was brilliant.”

“It was the best first half of the season, by far, defensively and offensively. We ran out of gas in the second half, but I’m not going to complain, because that was a brilliant first half.”

Iona (7-5, 5-3 MAAC) spotted Monmouth the first four points of the evening before seizing control for good by scoring the next seven. As the Hawks struggled to get into a rhythm, stymied by Iona’s use of Dwayne Koroma and Dylan van Eyck alongside Nelly Junior Joseph to deny drives to the basket while also running a potent perimeter attack off the 3-point line as the Gaels ripped off a 21-3 run to extend their lead to double digits, where it remained for a majority of the night.

“We made a huge effort to get the ball inside,” Asante Gist said after his 18-point outing, which was complemented by five assists and a handful of plays to set up a career night for Joseph. “I thought we played good defense, we guarded the 3-point line well. They only made five threes, and that’s a big part of their offense.”

“You guys have been around the MAAC much longer than me,” Pitino told the media while prefacing his effusive praise for Joseph, who tallied 19 points and 11 rebounds, and blocked five shots. “Have you ever seen a freshman with this much potential? I mean, he’s got great potential, and he’s just scratching his potential. We’re looking, potentially, at a great basketball player down the road. We can have something special.”

Frustrations continued to mount during that stretch, as following a play where Monmouth guard Marcus McClary was knocked down and bloodied with no foul called, King Rice was ejected after a heated exchange of words with official Brandon Cruz, who rung up the Hawks’ head coach with a double technical foul.

With associate head coach Rick Callahan taking the reins in the second half, Monmouth (10-6, 10-5 MAAC) was able to gradually whittle away at its deficit, coming out of a 54-34 halftime hole with a 9-2 run in the first three minutes removed from the intermission. The Hawks used galvanizing contributions from seniors Deion Hammond, Melik Martin and George Papas to draw closer, even pulling within three points in the final minute of regulation, but were ultimately unable to close the gap after Myles Ruth’s attempt to drive the lane and incite contact resulted in a held ball that swung possession back to Iona.

The two teams will reprise one of the MAAC’s marquee rivalries Saturday, and as his team prepares to contest its third game in 96 hours, Gist has made sure to not waver from the warrior mindset that Iona has employed in making up for lost time in this unconventional season.

“Coach keeps telling us, ‘are we going to keep fighting, or are we going to lay down?’” Gist reaffirmed. “As one of the leaders of the team, my mindset is to always keep fighting, and I’m just proud of my guys. It’s a lot of games we’re going to be playing in a number of days, but as long as everybody stays mentally engaged and focused, we’ll be able to have a good stretch. And like I said, everybody’s going hard every single day, coming in with that same mindset, so we’ll be fine.”