Tyson Jolly’s 19 points led all scorers as Iona defeated Appalachian State to win season opener in Rick Pitino’s first home game with fans at Hynes Center. (Photo by Iona College Athletics)
NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. — Rick Pitino’s message to his Iona team was a simple and valuable one after being taken out of its game through the first half of its season opener Tuesday against Appalachian State, who forced the Gaels into an unorthodox offensive style.
In the final 20 minutes, Iona found its calling on the defensive end, rendering the visiting Mountaineers into just a 29-percent shooting display and holding them without a field goal over the final three minutes, using a game-ending 10-0 run to drive away to a 65-53 victory at the Hynes Athletics Center in Iona’s first game without fan restrictions since March 2020.
“We started out the game taking a few bad shots, and what I tried to explain to them, ‘you’ve got to be better defensively, because you’re not going to get a chance to get out on the break like you do every day in practice,” Pitino shared as the Gaels got 19 points from SMU transfer Tyson Jolly and 17 off the bench from Dylan van Eyck to supplement the lockdown on the other side of the ball. “I said, ‘you must be the better defensive team in the second half.’ And they were brilliant.”
“We’re a racehorse team. When you play a ball control team, you’re not going to be able to play your style, so you’ve got to adjust and be the better defensive team. Tonight, we adjusted to that style and we were a hell of a defensive team. We challenged the 3-point shot, even the ones they made were under duress, and that’s just guys focusing in at the defensive end.”
Iona looked the part of a teenage driver taking his or her road test in the opening minutes, as the Gaels felt themselves out and found their way before gradually acclimating to App State’s small ball and floor spacing. Jolly, playing above the rim and belying his 6-foot-4 stature, was the catalyst on the boards early to back up his scoring prowess, benefiting from Nelly Junior Joseph being a non-factor due to matchups.
“Every night, you can get something different,” Jolly said of his repertoire, which included playing on the block at various points of the night to give Iona a physical body in the paint to spell Joseph. “I definitely like to post up, shoot threes, drive. I try to be a complete player. Me being active defensively, being able to run and show my skill set, I feel like it’s perfect.”
And for the 2,300-plus in attendance, many of whom had gone 20 months without live basketball, the end result was equally as blissful.
“Today was a little different, but you could definitely see that so-called Pitino effect,” van Eyck admitted. “We had the entire crowd completely filled up, and that’s what happens when a man has a resume like that. We’re able to be blessed by that.”
“I was pleasantly surprised,” Pitino said of the atmosphere. “The crowd was great, alive. We’ll probably sell out (Saturday) against Harvard, but these guys have worked very hard to get to this point, and the schedule’s terrific.”
Having validated part of its preseason hype by finding a way to win while the opposing team dictated tempo, Iona’s potential has become galvanized as a result. One game does not make a season, but getting the opener in the books had given the Gaels momentum to build bigger and better in what could be a momentous campaign.
“We’ve only got one goal,” van Eyck said. “Obviously, we want to win every game, but we’re confident in ourselves that we believe that’s going to be achieved. We want to reach an Elite Eight, a Final Four. We want to make noise on the national level. That’s our only goal, that’s our main goal.”
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.