The Iona women’s basketball team has split their opening two games 1-1.
 

The Gaels opened their season with a home victory against Wagner College at the Hynes Athletic Center. 

Iona won the game against Wagner College 87-62, after they stormed to a 21-6 lead in the first quarter and led 46-21 at the half. Wagner played better in the second half of the game outscoring the Gaels 20-15 in the third quarter, but a 26-21 final quarter for Iona helped seal the opening day victory.  

Thoranna Hodge-Carr top scored for the Gaels with 18 points, and she was supported by three other Gaels who reached double figures; Juana Camilion scored 17, Kate Mager scored 15 and Natalia Otkhmezuri got 15 points from the bench.
 

Shooting was where Iona pulled away from Wagner as the Gaels shot 56.7% from the floor, with Wagner shooting only 40.3%. The Gaels also went 47.4% from three-point range, with Wagner shooting just 14.3% from beyond the arc.
 

Although Wagner College edged the Gaels on the glass outscoring them 36-35, Iona finished with 20 team assists compared to Wagner’s 16 and the Gaels forced the Seahawks into 22 turnovers, which they converted into 27 points, with 46 of Iona’s points came from inside the paint.
 

The other leaders for the Gaels against Wagner were Isabelle Lipinski who notched a game high seven rebounds, Ketsia Athias who had eight assists for the Gaels, while Lipinski led Iona with two blocks and Judith Gomez had a team high four steals.
 

In the Gaels’ second game of the season, they lost against Stony Brook University at the Island Federal Arena.  

The Gaels stormed to an early lead, scoring 26 points in the first quarter compared to the Seawolves’ 8. The second quarter was close but Stony Brook edged the Gaels 17-18. However, Iona still led by 17 going into the halftime break.
 

The Seawolves then produced two final quarters to beat the Gaels, outscoring them 26-15 in the third and 21-13 in the fourth, meaning the Gaels went down 73-71 in the game.
 

Juana Camilion was a major reason for the Gaels’ early success as she outscored Stony Brook on her own with 10 points in the first quarter and adding three assists.  

Although the Seawolves managed a 12-0 run in the second quarter, the Mmaroon and Ggold limited the Seawolves to one basket in the final three minutes of the half.
 

Annie Warren of the Seawolves began to tun the tide for her team, scoring the first eight points of the third quarter, which allowed Stony Brook to eventually complete the comeback win.
 

The Gaels lost Camilion with 3:19 left in the fourth quarter after she received her fifth foul of the night.
 

Iona led by a single point at this stage and held the lead for another two minutes, before Sherrice Pittman made 1/2 free throws to even the contest, and before another foul led to the Gaels trailing 70-69.
 

Ketsia Athias tied the game again for Iona, before Stony Brook took the final 73-71 lead with six seconds to play, as Athias was unable to make the game-tying shot down the stretch.  

Iona is ranked fifth in the MAAC pre-season rankings behind Quinnipiac University in first, Manhattan College in second, Niagara University in third and Fairfield University in fourth.
 

Juana Camilion was selected to the All-MAAC first team, while Ketsia Athias was elected to the All-MAAC second team in the pre-season awards.  

Next up for the Gaels is a home match against Providence College on Nov. 17 at the Hynes Athletic Center.