Isaiah Ross shot Iona past Quinnipiac and into MAAC tournament quarterfinals Tuesday. (Photo by Matthew Strabuk/The Press of Atlantic City)
For one of the local Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference teams, Tuesday’s opening round was a glimpse of the powerhouse it could soon be, while the other experienced an abrupt end to an adversity-plagued year in yet another microcosm of how things panned out.
Iona dominates glass, stifles Quinnipiac
Coming into the MAAC tournament off its latest COVID pause, which ended the regular season two weeks prematurely, Rick Pitino took the safe approach with Iona, taking it one game at a time and making sure his team was in shape for its postseason opener Tuesday against Quinnipiac.
If this first impression was anything close to game shape, Iona’s trendy upside could very well land it in yet another NCAA Tournament.
The Gaels jumped on the accelerator from the start and never looked back, dominating Quinnipiac from tip to buzzer in a 72-48 victory that saw the No. 9 seed post more rebounds (50) than points allowed to the eighth-seeded Bobcats.
“I expected jitters in the first half, because it’s been so long since we played a game,” Pitino admitted. “The message was, coming out of COVID, the offense will come. Just play the defense that’s going to help you win the game. And they did.”
Iona (9-5) rendered Quinnipiac into just a 28 percent shooting effort and only needed 15 points from Isaiah Ross on a night where no Bobcat registered more than seven points.
“Tonight, we weren’t the best version of ourselves,” Baker Dunleavy conceded. “You’ve got to have that in you and draw upon it at the most important time of the year, and unfortunately, we weren’t able to do that.”
Iona advances to Wednesday’s quarterfinals to meet top seed and regular season champion Siena, who did not face the Gaels in the regular season, and is 0-10 lifetime against Iona in MAAC tournament settings.
“We’re looking forward to that game,” a jubilant Ross said with a slight smirk. “We can’t wait to play them.”
Manhattan battles back, denied late by Fairfield
Steve Masiello stressed not doing the little things through a disappointing conclusion to the regular season where his Manhattan team dropped eight of its last ten entering the postseason and a rubber match with a Fairfield team that split a pair of contests with the Jaspers less than a week ago.
Manhattan led for the majority of the evening, fell behind late in the second half, but needed a buzzer-beating 3-pointer from walk-on Ethan Lasko to send the Stags into overtime. The Jaspers played catchup in the extra session and had a chance to win in the final seconds on what was intended to be a drive for Anthony Nelson, but Lasko could not get a shot off in time, falling to No. 7 seed Fairfield, 59-58.
“The last two years, we got knocked out by Manhattan,” Fairfield’s Jesus Cruz remarked after his 16 points led the way for the Stags (8-16), who will face Monmouth in the quarterfinals Wednesday. “It’s so much sweeter to get it against them. They’re such a gritty team, they’re tough. It feels so good to live another day.”
“We’ve been a resilient group,” head coach Jay Young proudly assessed. “We were not a good team early in the year, and we just kind of stuck with it, stayed the course and just kept grinding every day in practice. The guys never got discouraged, and this is a product of that.”
In the face of Manhattan (7-13) having a one-and-done postseason experience for a third time in five years, Masiello admitted he likely would have drawn up a different play for the win, but did not make any excuses for his ultimate decision.
“They loaded up on Ant, and I didn’t put him in a situation to succeed,” Masiello said of the final possession. "They knew he was going to keep the ball, and my mindset was put the ball in your best playmaker’s hands. I probably should have run something else. Hindsight’s 20/20, but if I had to do it over, I would’ve.”
“The shooting, you can’t control, but the free throws frustrate me, because we put a lot of time into it. If you shoot 12-of-21 in survive-and-advance games, you’re just not going to win. You’ve got to rely on your defense, and that was there for us tonight. We defended well enough to win, but it’s frustrating when the ball doesn’t go in. We need to be better.”
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