By JADEN DALY
Special to ZAGSBLOG
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — Iona has punched its ticket to the Big Dance and earned a shot at redemption.
A year after blowing a 25-point lead and losing to BYU in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, the Gaels are making a return trip.
This time around, they guaranteed their trip by winning the MAAC Tournament championship outright instead of nervously awaiting an at-large bid on Selection Sunday. Iona will enter the Big Dance on a five-game winning streak.
“This year, it’s a lot more meaningful,” Lamont “MoMo” Jones said after scoring 14 points to help Iona claim the championship with a 60-57 victory over arch-rival Manhattan at the MassMutual Center. “If you told me nine months ago that this was going to be the case, I probably wouldn’t have believed it.”
Jones, a Harlem native who climbed over the seats to embrace his mother following the victory, will now be headed to the Big Dance for the the third consecutive year after last season and the previous year’s Elite Eight run with Arizona.
Several of Jones’ teammates are also making a return trip, while some, like big man David Laury (10 points, six rebounds) and reserve guard Tre Bowman (20 points on 7-of-9 shooting), will be dancing for the first time.
“I said from the beginning of the season that we were going to make the tournament the right way,” said junior guard Sean Armand, one of four players left over from last year’s roster. “Hard work pays off no matter what you do, and this shows it right here.”
Iona coach Tim Cluess also paid homage to a fallen recruit who would have been on the team.
“To me, it’s about effort, and I’m thrilled to be going back with the four players who were with us last year,” Cluess said. “I’m also thrilled to be representing Mike Haynes, who would have been with us right now.”
Haynes, a 6-7 forward from Chicago who signed with Iona for the 2012-13 season, was shot and killed last July at 22 while trying to break up a fight over a stolen necklace near his home.
The Jaspers (14-18) led at halftime, 26-24, but the Gaels seized control in the second half.
Down 35-30 with 14 1/2 minutes left in regulation, Iona went on a 17-2 run to take a 47-37 lead with 8:41 to play.
Manhattan tried to come back and cut the deficit to 56-52 with 1:24 left, but the Jaspers lacked rebounding opportunities when they needed it most.
Bowman made a pair of free throws with 28 seconds to go and Laury dunked with six seconds remaining to put the game out of reach.
After a late-season swoon that saw Iona lose six out of seven games, each by three points or less, the Gaels heated up at tournament time, winning three straight here, including the semifinal victory over top-seeded Niagara.
Iona (20-13) had to win three games in three different styles to cement their place in the bracket.
In the Gaels’ quarterfinal victory over Canisius, Jones and Armand combined for 57 of Iona’s 89 points and shot 25-of-26 at the free throw line.
Against Niagara in the semifinals, five Gaels scored in double figures.
In the championship, Iona had to gut it out on defense against a Manhattan team that allowed only 60 points per game to their opponents. Add that all up, and you get a team who played the most complete basketball to be one of potentially two New York-area representatives hearing their names announced on Selection Sunday.
Manhattan coach Steve Masiello, who received a questionable technical foul for being outside of the coaches’ box in the second half, believed at the half his team was on the verge of its first bid since 2004.
Up two points, he told his players in the locker room that they were 20 minutes away from their “ultimate goal.”
Afterward, he had a different message.
“We’re going to look back on this day and cherish it,” Masiello said. “And this will be the fuel to Manhattan’s future.”
The Jaspers should be very good next year, when they get injured star George Beamon and Maryland transfer Ashton Pankey back.
For now, it is Iona’s time to celebrate.
“We felt that if we were going to win it, we were going to have to win it the hard way,” said Cluess. “We deserved it because of that.”
Now, the Gaels have a second straight date at the dance and a shot at redemption.
(With News Services; Photo: Daily News)
