The Iona University men’s basketball team played three games from Feb. 25 to March 3, dropping two, but then breaking their four-game losing streak.
Starting with an away match at Mount St. Mary’s University’s Knott Arena, Iona fell 72-65. Graduate students Idan Tretout and Joel Brown and freshman Jeremiah Quigley were among the Gaels with double-digit performances despite the loss.
Mount St. Mary’s took advantage of a slow offensive opening by Iona, dropping 16 points through the first seven and a half minutes. During that span, Iona missed their first eight shot attempts.
The Maroon and Gold then went on a tear, scoring 13 straight points over a nearly five-minute span in the first quarter, highlighted by a Brown layup.
The Mountaineers pulled ahead early in the second half, though, with a 12-point run and nine-score advantage overall. Despite a Quigley two-pointer late in the fourth quarter, Mount St. Mary’s went up seven thanks in part to six free throws.
The men’s team returned to the Hynes Athletic Center five days after facing Mount St. Mary’s for a 7 p.m. affair with Quinnipiac University on March 1.
Brown continued his stellar run from the game prior, scoring a then-season-high 17 points in 29 minutes of play.
After the score was knotted at 6-6 in the first quarter, the Bobcats took 17 of the next 20 points and never looked back. Tretout tried to cut the score down with a three as the first half expired, but Quinnipiac regained a 14-point advantage after the break.
The Gaels briefly trailed the Bobcats by four points in the second half, though they fell flat and only scored 14 more points the rest of the way. Quinnipiac’s 82-64 win gives them the season series (2-0) over Iona.
Iona got back in the win column after defeating Marist College 71-64 on March 3.
Brown was lights out once again, scoring 21 points on a trio of three-pointers, which were a career-high.
It was a back-and-forth matchup throughout most of the first half, with several runs being completed by each team, but Iona tied things up at 37 after a clutch three from Osborn Shema.
Freshman Sultan Adewale’s aggressive layup pushed the Gaels forward in the second half, as did Brown and Quigley’s efforts for 20 combined points in the last 11 minutes of the game.
Quigley later iced things at the foul line, while Iona shut out the Red Foxes on their final five offensive possessions.
Men’s basketball wraps up their regular season schedule with a pair of games from March 7-9 before heading to Atlantic City, N.J., for the first round of the 2024 MAAC Championship.
