Manhattan wins MAAC title, earns NCAA competition berth
Manhattan's very first travel to the NCAA tournament in a years came with the expenditure of competing Iona one year after the Gaels defeated the Jaspers for the conference championship.
Yup, this was one fun victory for George Beamon and the Jaspers.
Beamon scored 16 factors and Manhattan defeated Iona 71-68 on Monday night for the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference tournament title.
"The sensation we had last year, we just weren't trying to have that," Beamon claimed. "I did not everything in my energy and the individuals did every little thing in their energy not to let up any kind of Threes.".
Beamon was among four players to score in double figures for second-seeded Manhattan (25-7). Rhamel Brown had 15 points, Shane Richards doned with 14 and Emmy Andujar had 12.
The Jaspers have actually won 11 of 12, including an 80-77 overtime win over Iona in the house just 10 days earlier.
"This is simply an incredible run," teacher Steve Masiello claimed. "It does not occur. It's storybook-like. Generally you have like two or three things that are wrong. There's absolutely nothing wrong.".
A.J. English had 15 points for top-seeded Iona (22-10), which had five players with at the very least 10 factors.
The Gaels had an opportunity to tie it at the end but David Laury's initial 3-point attempt of the season attacked the side of the rim at the buzzer.
"They did a good task switching over out and unfortunately, I needed to take the shot," Laury claimed. "And I missed it.".
Laury and Sean Armand doned with 13 points apiece. Tre Bowman buyinged 14 and Isaiah Williams had 10.
Manhattan led by as many as 10 points in the second half, yet had to hold back a late charge by the Gaels.
English cut the deficit to 2 points twice down the stretch, with a layup and easy dunk with 18 seconds to play.
Iona then fouled Donovan Kates, who made one of 2 free throws for his only point of the game. That established the stay try by Laury.
Iona, which averages greater than 10 3-pointers each game, went 6 for 21 from lengthy variety against the Jaspers.
Manhattan led by 8 early in the 2nd half, however Iona reacted by racking up the following 11 factors, highlighted by Isaiah Williams' huge dunk after he grabbed the rebound of a Laury miss.
Manhattan came right back. C.J. Jones' dunk covered a 9-0 run that placed the Jaspers back ahead 44-38, and they never provided the lead back.
Whenever Iona would certainly get close, Shane Richards would hit a 3-pointer. His third of the one-half made it 59-54, and stimulated an 8-0 run that placed the Jaspers up by 10 factors with 6 minutes to play.
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Iona was searching for its third straight trip to the NCAA event. The Gaels, who acquired an at-large quote two years back, are not anticipating one this period.
"If you look at exactly what we did in the last 20-25 games of the year, then we're an NCAA team," coach Tim Cluess claimed. "If you take a look at our general document, we're most likely not. Our task was to succeed tonight. We really did not.".
The New York rivals, whose schools are less than 10 miles apart, were playing for the 85th time. They divided their video games in the regular period.
Both losses to Manhattan are the only two the Gaels have actually had in their last 16 video games.
