No. 8 seed Iona and 9 seed Quinnipiac met in the first round of the MAAC tournament. Rick Pitino’s Iona squad came into the postseason 8-5 and 6-3 in conference play. Quinnipiac entered the contest 9-12 and 7-10 in MAAC games.
The squads met only once in the regular season, back on February 17th. In that matchup, Quinnipiac would be victorious by a score of 74-70. Iona would look for revenge in the postseason matchup.
First half
Both teams came out a bit slow in this one. It seemed as if a lid was on the rim for both teams. Shooting struggles were the theme of the first. Iona would shoot 32.1% from the field in the first half, Quinnipiac just 27.6%. The struggles carried over to three-pointers; Iona did not make a single three in the first, and Quinnipiac would make just 3 of 12 attempted.
A difference maker was rebounding; Iona grabbed 27 compared to just 15 from Quinnipiac. Isaiah Ross led all scorers in the first half with 7 for Iona. Savion Lewis was Quinnipiac’s first-half leading scorer with 5. After half of shooting struggles from both sides, Iona held a 25-20 lead over Quinnipiac at the half.
Second half
Coach Pitino’s squad turned it up to another dial after halftime. They would raise their shooting percentage for the game to nearly 50% at 46.7%. Quinnipiac, unfortunately, did not find new life in the second. Shooting struggles held Quinnipiac back and ultimately kept them out of the game. They would finish the game making just 28.1% of their shots from the field.
Iona would grab 23 more rebounds in the second half, giving them 50 team rebounds for the game. Their opponents would only grab 33 for the night. The huge difference in rebounding and the hot second-half shooting for Iona led to a blowout. Iona would win the first-round matchup 72-48.
Isaiah Ross led the way for Iona scoring 15 points. Dwayne Koroma would add 10, and Asante Gist would score 12 points in the win. Quinnipiac’s shooting struggles were highlighted in the box score where no player finished in double digits. Freshman guard Luis Kortright would lead Quinnipiac in scoring with 7 points.
With this win, Iona will advance to a quarter finals matchup with the number one seed in the MAAC tournament, Siena.
