COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Iona slows down Niagara
LEWISTON — To take away Niagara’s running game is to put the brakes to its offense. To make the Purple Eagles play a half-court game is to set up their demise.
The young but dangerous Iona Gaels avoided the turnovers that fuel Niagara’s open-floor attack by utilizing a four-guard offense down the stretch Thursday and slipped out of the Gallagher Center with a 71-65 victory that’s fueling fan unease on Monteagle Ridge.
Iona hit town a deceiving 7-10 overall, 2-4 in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. The Gaels lost in overtime to 25th-ranked Wisconsin early in the season. They gave Ohio State a battle. And injuries forced them to play seven games without senior center Gary Springer, then another five without sophomore guard Rashon Dwight, taxing a roster that features seven freshmen and two sophomores.
Still, the closeness of many recent games indicated that second-year coach Kevin Willard, a former assistant to Rick Pitino at Louisville, was on the verge of turning the program around. And now a conquest of Niagara (13-5, 4-2) could become the Gaels’ springboard.
“I think Niagara’s obviously one of the top one or two teams in the conference and to come on the road and get a big road victory is huge,” Willard said. “We lost our last three conference games by four points total. So to finally pull one out against a very good basketball team is as good as it gets for us.”
Niagara coach Joe Mihalich was left to lament his team’s erratic offensive effort. A pair of three-pointers by Tyrone Lewis helped the Purple Eagles build a 49-44 advantage with 11:24 remaining. Niagara managed just four field goals the rest of the way.
“We got to do a better job scoring in the half-court,” Mihalich said. “There are times we’re really good with our half-court execution and tonight just wasn’t one of them.”
The circumstances hardly seemed ripe for an Iona ambush. The Gaels had won just one of their last six conference road games. Niagara had played eight of its last 10 on the road and figured to feed off the energy of a home game with the students back on campus. Instead, the Purple Eagles, overwhelmed at Marist four days earlier, are on a multi-game losing streak for the first time all season with Rider coming in Saturday.
“We got off to a good start here and people think that we’ve separated ourselves — maybe we even think that — that we’ve separated from the rest [of the conference],” Mihalich said. “We haven’t. It’s Siena and everybody else.”
Bilal Benn led Niagara with 18 points, with Anthony Nelson adding 11. Springer, with 16 points, was one of four players in double figures for the Gaels, who benefited from 40 trips to the free-throw line in a highly physical game. Iona outscored Niagara, 25-16, at the stripe, and now the Purple Eagles have to regroup.
“Two losses is a first this year for us and I think this will show our character and where we’re at,” Lewis said.
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