I GOT FIVE ON IT!!!!! Iona wins 5th straight MAAC tournament title

Iona celebrates fifth consecutive MAAC tournament championship after Gaels defeated Fairfield Saturday in Atlantic City. (Photo by Iona College Athletics)

With just over five minutes remaining in a rock fight of a first half and his Iona team clinging to a two-point lead, Rick Pitino called for a pep talk.

“I just kept reminding them of last night,” the Gaels’ head coach reflected Saturday, as Iona had survived a late rally from Niagara to advance to this Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference championship stage against a Fairfield team that was threatening after five straight points from senior guard Taj Benning. “We had a great lead, and because we let up defensively, we let them back in the game. And I said, ‘there’s no letup. We played fabulous defense, we held a very good offensive player (Jake Wojcik) to zero points. So I just told them, ‘we’re not going to let up, we’re going to stick with our defense.’”

Message received.

Leading wire-to-wire, Iona flexed its defensive muscle with a 13-3 run out of the timeout to end the opening stanza and remained on the accelerator for the final 20 minutes, forcing Fairfield to shoot a meager 30 percent from the floor and denying the Stags on nearly every opportunity en route to a 60-51 victory for the program’s record 13th MAAC tournament title and fifth straight win in a league championship game.

For the Gaels (12-5), seeded ninth after the MAAC sorted its tournament field by conference wins in an effort to level the playing field after no team was able to play a full 20-game league slate, the latest taste of March Madness comes for a program ravaged by COVID-19 to the tune of four separate pauses, one of which was a program-long 51 days. Upon returning from that hiatus, Iona got five games in before having to shut down again on February 22 for the duration of the regular season, necessitating four wins in five days to author a fairytale ending to a nightmare of a season that saw more than half the Iona roster, as well as Pitino himself, contract the virus.

“I don’t think everyone understands what it’s like when you have to get shut down,” said Asante Gist, whose 18 points landed him tournament MVP honors. “You really are down. There’s no working out, nothing, just sitting in the house. We all love playing the game, so just sitting out, it’s crazy.”

Fairfield (10-17) used a 10-2 run out of the intermission to pull within four points, but the momentum was short-lived. As the Stags tried in vain to find an offensive rhythm, Iona slammed the door at every turn, both inside and outside the 3-point line, to leave little doubt in the end.

“We knew we had to play defense to make the tournament,” Berrick JeanLouis, the MAAC leader in steals per game, imparted. “Coach P told us the only way we were going to win was if we defended. Offense would come, but everybody defended, and now we’re going dancing.”

As Iona awaits its fate on Selection Sunday in what has become an annual rite of passage in the program, it will likely land on the No. 15 or 16 line before being called by Greg Gumbel. Regardless, the coach who attempted to slay the dragon recognizes the formula in the Gaels that could prove lethal to a potential national championship contender.

“I wouldn’t want to play them if they were a 15 or 16 seed, I know that,” Fairfield head coach Jay Young acknowledged. “They’ve got answers offensively and they can defend, and when you get to the NCAA Tournament, that’s dangerous.”

“Our defense is key for us,” Pitino reaffirmed. “We’re going to get stronger offensively, but like I told the players almost daily, we’re never going to complain because over 500,000 people have lost their lives and never had funeral services. But for them to win four games coming off a COVID pause and to do these things is remarkable to me. We’re excited to be in the tournament, and we’re getting better with each game that we play.”