Want to Know About Iona Before Tonight's Game?

I had the privilege of covering many Iona men's basketball games this season.  If you want to know all about the Gaels, here are my twelve game stories on them.  Learn all about Scott Machado, Mike Glover, Momo Jones and Sean Armand below.  

I decided to use my links off the Mid Majority site, which are the same articles that are on this site.  So sit back, read about Sean Armand's record setting performance at MSG vs. Siena, or "Late Night with Scott Machado" or Iona's 31-0 run vs. St Peter's. Hope you enjoy and good luck to the Gaels tonight!

• St Joseph's vs. Iona
• LIU vs. Iona
• Iona vs. Hofstra
• Siena vs. Iona
• Niagara vs. Iona
• Manhattan vs. Iona
• Loyola Md vs. Iona
• Rider vs. Iona
• Iona vs. Manhattan
• Marist vs. Iona
• Fairfield vs. Iona
• St Peter's vs Iona

Iona Drubs St Peter's Twice (Recap of St Peter's - Iona Doubleheader)

After we watched Stony Brook win the America East Regular Season Championship, my older son Matthew and I exited Pritchard Gym while the players were still hoisting the America East Regular Season Championship trophy.  We made our way to the car and headed out for the long trip to New Rochelle for the last regular season games for the women's and men's teams.  The trip took a little more than a hour, thanks to lighter than usual Sunday traffic and a little bit of a lead foot by yours truly.

Matthew was wise enough to have slept the entire trip. I had to wake him as I parked our car in the Iona garage. After Matthew stretched, we walked to the Hynes Center.  Iona was hosting St Peter's in a Senior Day doubleheader.  The women's game was first and the men's game would follow a hour later.

When we walked into the gym, the women's game was already in the second half with the Gaels up eight, 39-31 with about sixteen minutes left.   But as basketball is a game of runs, the Peahens went on a 11-4 spurt in the next four minutes.  Iona was only up one, 43-42 with about twelve minutes left and Iona Women's Head Coach Tony Bozzella was not too pleased.

But what was going to be a microcosm of the men's game, the Gaels outscored the Peahens 31-7 the rest of the way, which included a game ending 16-0 run.  St Peter's missed their last eight shots and committed two turnovers in that span.  Meanwhile, Iona hit eighteen of their twenty free throw attempts in the second half.   The Gaels' Women's team won the first half of the doubleheader 74-49.

Matthew and I joined Coach Bozzella, his family, my friend Mal and his friend Emilie for the Senior Day Dinner at a reception room in the Hynes Center.  It was a nice event where Coach Bozzella briefly spoke about  how his group of seniors were such helpful mentors to the freshmen and sophomores on the team,  He spoke how this team was a family and he thanked all the parents and people who have supported the team during the season.  It was a nice reception.

We left the reception and headed back into the Hynes Center Gym several minutes after what was supposed to be the start of the game.  Much to my surprise, the Senior Day awards ceremony for the six seniors on the Iona Men's Basketball Team was still taking place.   When we got to our seats, all the way up in the top rows of the general admission side of the gym, Scott Machado was being introduced last to the packed crowd.

After Machado was given a standing ovation by nearly the entire crowd, the six Iona players; Machado, Michael Glover, Randy Dezouvre, Kyle Smyth, Jermel Jenkins and Trinity Fields all raised their framed jerseys while photographers snapped picture after picture.  Then the Iona Bagpipe Band came out, which was a nice treat for this Irishman.   Finally, to top it off, Scott Machado's brother sang a wonderful rendition of the national anthem.

The Gaels spotted the Peahens a 4-0 lead.  A Glover dunk and a Momo Jones three put Iona up to stay 5-4.  But St Peter's kept it close throughout the first half.  The score was only 17-14 when Jenkins hit three consecutive three pointers in a row to give the Gaels a 26-17 lead.  But the Peahens refused to go away in the first half and actually cut the deficit to five, 40-35 at halftime.

As I noted earlier, Matthew and I were in the upper rows of the general admission seating opposite the Iona bench.  One of the perks though of sitting in that section was being directly behind my favorite pep band in New York college hoops, the Iona Pep Band.   The pep band was killing it at halftime playing "Sussudio", "Brickhouse", some Led Zeppelin, then "Frankenstein" and more Led Zeppelin.  Later on, they made my day by playing the theme song to the old TV show "The Wild, Wild West".

The first four plus minutes of the second half saw very little change.  Iona had pulled out to an eleven point lead.  But St Peter's was able to cut the lead back to seven, 50-43 with a little less than sixteen minutes left.  At the under sixteen media timeout,  the pep band played the James Bond theme song.  Perhaps the pep band knew that the Gaels were about to use their "License to Kill" on the Peahens.

It started innocently enough with two Sean Armand free throws.  Then it was a three point play by Machado, followed by layups by Dezouvre and Glover.  Jones followed up with a three point play, then an Armand went back to back with a three pointer followed by an old fashioned three point play.  Before you knew it, Iona was up 68-43.

But the Gaels weren't done yet.  Another three point play by Jones was sandwiched between two Glover layups.  Jenkins once again found his three point shooting touch and buried another two shots from beyond the arc. It was a 31-0 run before Lamin Fulton ended it with a three pointer.  The Gaels were up 81-46 with still eight and a half minutes to go in the game.

It turns out that many fans, knowing that the game was over, actually left at this time.  Matthew and I were able to move down several rows and get a better view of the last few minutes of the game. All that was left was for Iona Coach Tim Cluess to take his seniors out one by one.  Then I just needed the pep band to play "Peg"  to make my night complete.  Sure enough, late in the second half, the band cued up my favorite Steely Dan song.

Iona took its foot off the throttle down the stretch, despite pleas from Matthew for the Gaels to score one hundred points.  Iona just missed, winning handily 98-61.  In a rarely seen nice touch, Cluess let Smyth, a key player and a starter for most of the season, stay on the court and dribble out the last few seconds of the game.

The beat down of St Peter's was perhaps a little payback for the Peahens knocking the Gaels off in the MAAC Championship game last season.  But that was a much better St Peter's team than the 5-25 team I saw Sunday evening.  In the college basketball world, things can turn around quickly in a year.

Jenkins, in his last regular season home game scored a career high twenty one points on seven three pointers. Jones led Iona with twenty four points, while Glover and Armand each had fourteen.  Machado nearly had another double double with nine points and twelve assists.  Darius Conley led three St Peter's players in double figures with twelve points.

As Matthew and I made our way out of the Hynes Center for perhaps the last time this season, I wondered two things.  One, I thought about whether Iona could not only win the MAAC Championship but also make a run to the Sweet Sixteen this season.  Second, I wondered if the Iona Pep Band hires themselves out to play at parties.

Machado's Rare Feat Gives Iona A Needed Win

Friday night, Iona traveled down to Maryland to play Loyola.  The Greyhounds went out to a twenty five point second half lead before the Gaels rallied to cut it to four.  But time ran out on Iona and Loyola Maryland won the game and took over sole possession of first place in the MAAC.

While I was out having dinner with a friend on Friday night,  my son Matthew watched the game at home on TV.  Saturday morning, Matthew told me all about the game and the Iona comeback that fell short.  He was looking forward to taking the trip up to New Rochelle to see Iona back on the winning track.  Somehow, in the past year, my six year old has become a college basketball maven, just like his dad.

Sometimes, a team after a huge, emotional victory will often feel a letdown in the next game.  Such was the case yesterday for Loyola as they hosted Fairfield.  The Greyhounds got routed at home by the Stags, losing 68-51.

Since it was doubleheader day at the Hynes Center, members of the Iona mens' team were waiting around for the end of the women's basketball game to finish.  One of the players asked out loud what was the update in the Fairfield-Loyola game. I told him that Fairfield won by seventeen and obviously he was pleased with the result.   So after the women's game finished, the Iona men's team took the court knowing a win would put them back in a tie for first.

At the start of the game, Iona came out determined to run Marist out of the building.  After eight and half minutes, the score was 23-7 Gaels.  Michael Glover, Taaj Ridley and Sean Armand combined to score twenty one of the twenty three points.  With about seven and half minutes left in the first half, Iona still held a comfortable 30-16 lead.

But as has been the case a few times this season, the Gaels cannot seem to stand prosperity.  The Red Foxes outscored them 22-12 the remainder of the half.  Marist was able to burn Iona for easy layups or Devin Price scorched the Gaels with a couple of three pointers.   Iona limped into the half up 42-38.

I often tweet about how great the Iona Pep Band is during the men's home games.  Well, when there is a doubleheader of women's and men's games, the Pep Band plays for both games.  If you were there for both games like me, you were treated to several Earth, Wind and Fire songs; "September" and "Fantasy", Santana's "Evil Ways", "BrickHouse", the"I Dream Of Jeannie" and The Wild Wild West:" TV show theme songs, "Smells Like Teen Spirit", "The Immigrant Song" and many others.  But the best was hearing Steely Dan's "Peg" both during the women's game and the men's game.  Good stuff.

The Red Foxes started the second half picking up right where they left off from the first half.  Marist outscored Iona 16-7 and held a 54-49 lead with fourteen and a half minutes left.  The Gaels' fans who had seen large leads evaporate against Manhattan at home and Siena on the road were getting quite antsy.  They didn't want to see the home team blow a chance to get back into a tie for first place.

Enter Glover and Momo Jones.  The duo basically took over the game from there as Iona went on a 13-1 run over the next three minutes.  Glover, Jones and Randy Dezouvre combined to score all the Gaels' points during that time frame as Iona went up 62-55.

However, Marist refused to go gently into that good, good night.   They cut the lead to three, 68-65 with about seven minutes left.   But the Red Foxes would not get any closer as Glover and Jones continued to score at will.  The Gaels' lead would extend to double digits, 79-69 on a Sean Armand three pointer with three and half minutes left.

As it became apparent that Iona was going to win the game, the buzz through the crowd and on Twitter was that Machado was only four points away from a triple double.  He already had ten assists and ten rebounds. The question was could he get those remaining four points.

It was his second time on the season that he was close to a triple double.   Late in the game in their win over Rider, Machado was just one rebound short of the rarely seen feat.  But coach Tim Cluess took him out before he could get that tenth rebound.  He was on the sidelines when Glover's free throw bounced off the rim right to the spot he would have been on the line had he still been in the game.

This time Machado was not going to be denied. First, he hit a layup with a little under three minutes left for his seventh and eighth points.  Then with time winding down on what would have likely been his last chance at the basket, Machado drove strong into the lane and  hit another layup to score his ninth and tenth points.  The public address announcer proudly proclaimed Machado's triple double and the fans roared in approval.

There also happen to be a couple of members of the San Antonio Spurs front office in attendance last night that likely approved of that as well.  Machado has received a lot of attention from NBA scouts and personnel in the past couple of months.  His stat line of ten points, ten assists and eleven rebounds from last night will only add to his ever growing resume.

Not to be outdone,  Glover had a double double with twenty five points and eleven rebounds.  Jones had twenty three points and Ridley had a double double as well with ten points and eleven rebounds.  Pride and Chavaughn Lewis each had twenty for Marist.

With their 83-74 win, Iona was back in a tie for first with Loyola.  Machado finally had his triple double, Glover and Jones combined to score forty eight points, a young Marist team showed a lot of heart and the Iona Pep Band had another great performance.  There was something for everyone last night.

Unless you were a Loyola Maryland fan. 

Six Degrees of Hofstra Separation - Part 3 - Cluess' Gaels Gain Revenge on the Jaspers

After watching Hofstra suffer another tough loss at the hands of Georgia State, Matthew and I bid adieu to Tieff, who couldn't make our last part of the Hofstra influenced tripleheader.  My six year old color analyst and I raced up north to the Bronx.  Our destination was Manhattan College, who were hosting Iona in a big MAAC conference game on Saturday night.

I have been to several games on the campus of the Jaspers.  Very simply put, you need to get there early, otherwise you will be taking a significant hike from your car to Draddy Gymnasium.  Sure enough, the small parking lot for Draddy was already full.  There was a sign in front of the entrance that said "No parking".  This game was the hottest mid major ticket in New York.  Tickets to the game were actually going on Stubhub for about $100.

Think about that for a second.  Iona vs. Manhattan going for scalper prices that you would only see in this area for St John's teams in their prime.  Needless to say, I was glad I had tickets waiting for me at Will Call.

But to get to those tickets meant parking several blocks down on Tibbett Street.  Matthew and I made the long walk to Draddy Gym to the Will Call for our tickets.  As we got close to the street entrance for the gym, we passed the Marist Red Foxes bus.  

It turns out that this was a doubleheader, with a women's game between then undefeated in conference Marist and Manhattan.  I asked one of the Marist players how they did and in a matter of fact but demoralized way she said they lost.  Marist now had one loss in conference and the Manhattan fans must have been giddy about the fact they could knock off another first place team on Saturday night.

Once we got our tickets right at game time, we found that the choice of seating was limited since many people were there early for the women's game.  Also, Draddy's bleacher seat configuration is quite, well, bizarre.  First, only half the gym is used for basketball.  When you walk in for a basketball game, it's a large open concourse. That's because the gym is also used for indoor track.

As for the basketball court itself, a section of the bleachers behind the Manhattan basket is offset from the court.  So if you are sitting low in this section, your view is that of the corner of the Jaspers bench.  You need to sit high in this section to get the whole view of the court.  If I were overseeing facilities at Manhattan, I would push back the season ticket section bleachers thirty feet and give it a better squared off view.

Unfortunately for Matthew and me, the only seats available were in the second row of this offset section.  Thus the pictures you see of the game are from our end of the basket.  Luckily for Matthew, there was a large projection screen that hung high above the one section of general admission seating opposite the team benches.  That was showing the game action and Matthew and I could follow along there when we needed it.

Like other school gyms, Draddy Gymnasium is quite warm with no AC.  If you are a single guy in college, you take appreciation in the fact that this means the female students in attendance prepare for this by wearing tanktops and t-shirts.  This was little comfort to a married man wearing a hoodie sweatshirt and his equally warm six year old son.  Throw in the fact that people often were standing in front of you blocking the view, and the result was a slightly dampened experience as a whole.

Still seeing a loud, full house of green clad students and other Manhattan fans made this a great atmosphere. A good number of Iona fans also made the trip and I happened to be sitting with a number of them.  It was quite possibly the biggest regular season college basketball game in New York City this season

You had two teams tied for first place in the MAAC, Iona and Manhattan, squaring off in a rematch of their first game, won on a buzzer beater by the Jaspers.  I was at that game in New Rochelle, where Manhattan rallied from a seventeen point deficit with eight minutes left, winning on a three point shot and stun the Iona home crowd..

So for some of you, you are probably wondering where the Hofstra Six Degrees of Separation comes to play in this game.  It's very simple.  Iona Head Coach Tim Cluess is an alum of Hofstra.  Cluess went to Hofstra after transferring from St John's and got his degree.

After a very successful career as a high school coach at St Mary's on Long Island, he later became the head of coach of Division II C.W. Post, where he took the Pioneers to the Elite Eight.  And yes, someone made a very strong case that Cluess should be the head coach of Hofstra before Tim Welsh was hired and eventually Mo Cassara became head coach.  Ultimately, Cassara becoming head coach turned out to be a very good move for Hofstra.

Likewise, the move by Iona to hire Cluess turned out just as well.  In his first season, Iona was 25-12. They lost in the MAAC Tournament finals to St. Peter's and made it to the championship game of the CIT.  This season, entering last night, the Gaels were tied for first in the MAAC with the Jaspers and the Greyhounds of Loyola Maryland with a 10-2 record.  Entering the game, Iona's overall record of 18-5 has given it serious consideration for an at large bid and they have a televised home BracketBuster game vs. Nevada.

The game got off to a roaring start for the home Jaspers as they quickly went out to a 5-2 lead on a three pointer by George Beamon.  The Gaels scored the next six points to take an 8-5 lead. From there both teams would exchange the leads and the game was very close for most of the first half.  Manhattan did most of their damage on the outside, while the Iona's Scott Machado really focused on getting the ball to Michael Glover or Lamont Jones driving in for layups.  The Gaels would score twenty four points in the first half in the paint and Machado was his usual self with six assists.

Iona would go on a 9-3 spurt to end the half up 44-38.   Manhattan hit six three pointers in the first half with  Beamon hitting three of those as he had seventeen first half points. But the Gaels countered by hitting ten of twelve free throws.  It looked to be another barn burner with the two teams.

However, Iona came out and scored the first seven points of the second half to make the score 51-38.  But Manhattan responded with an 8-0 spurt  to cut the lead to five, 51-46 with exactly fifteen minutes left.  Draddy Gym was rocking now.

But once again, the Gaels responded.  They proceeded to go on a 10-0 run over the next three minutes.  Glover scored eight of those ten points as the Jaspers had no answer for him,.  Iona was up 62-46 with about twelve minutes left.

The lead actually swelled to eighteen and hovered around that for the next four minutes.   A Lamont Jones layup made the score 71-53.  Manhattan again was staring down the barrel of a large deficit with eight minutes left.

But just about everyone in the crowd knew that the Jaspers had rallied from seventeen points down with the same amount of time remaining at the Hynes Center to defeat the Gaels, so surely hope was not lost yet.  The Manhattan fans implored their team on for one more run.

However, this time the Jaspers couldn't make their shots.  Over the next four minutes, Manhattan missed eleven of the next fourteen shots.   The deficit was still eighteen as Iona was ahead 80-62 with three and half minutes left.  

The Jaspers did force a couple of turnovers and went on a 9-1 run to cut the lead to ten, 81-71.  But there was only a minute left and not enough time for Manhattan to pull off another comeback.  The Gaels would end up winning 85-73.  Iona was now one game ahead in the MAAC standings, tied with Loyola Maryland.

Glover, Jones, Machado and Sean Armand combined to score sixty nine of Iona's eighty one points.  Machado had nine assists, one off another double double.  Beamon led all scorers with twenty six points but no other Jasper scored in double figures.

Coach Tim Cluess had to be pleased with the big road victory.  There is still a long road ahead for him and his team.  There is the first place game vs. the Greyhounds on Loyola's home court on February 10, then the game against Nevada on national television, followed by the rest of the conference regular season with the MAAC Tournament as the cherry on top.   And oh yeah, if the Gaels get through all that unscathed, there's that little thing known as the NCAA Tournament.  

That's Cluess' ultimate goal.  It would be quite a feat in your second year of coaching Division I basketball.

Catholic School Shootout

This article is also on the Mid Majority 800 Games Recap Site.

Before last night, the last time I saw an Iona Men's Basketball game was March 30 of this year, when the Hynes Center hosted the championship game of the CIT as Santa Clara played Iona. With the recent advent of the College Insider Tournament (CIT), the College Basketball Invitational (CBI), as well as the seventy three year old NIT, which was won this season by Wichita State, some mid major teams' seasons now don't always end in loss.   The home team had a chance to end their season with a win.  Alas for the Gaels, it was the Broncos' season that didn't end in a loss, as Santa Clara downed Iona 76-69 to win the CIT championship.

The Gaels expect a lot more than a CIT berth this season.  With the addition of  Lamont "Momo" Jones, a transfer from Arizona, to a team that is returning Michael Glover and Scott Machado, Iona is the favorite to win the MAAC.  And if not for one Robbie Hummel, they might very well be undefeated.  The Gaels, who entered the contest with a 3-1 record, have averaged ninety one points per game, which is second in the country in scoring.  Iona is also second in the country in assists per game, averaging an incredible twenty two assists per game.

Iona's opponent, St Joseph's was also 3-1, with their sole loss being to Seton Hall.  St Joe's was looking to improve on last season, their second season in a row with twenty plus losses.  The Hawks have their own star in Carl Jones, who is averaging over twenty three points per game, shooting fifty six percent from the field and a ridiculous fifty seven percent on his three point attempts.

When I left my house in North Bellmore last night at 6:00 P.M., I was sure that I would not make it to New Rochelle until well into the first half.  The Wednesday before Thanksgiving is one of the biggest travel days of the year as well as the biggest party night of the year.  I expected a lot of traffic on my route to Iona, especially on the usual traffic spots like the Northern State/Grand Central  Parkway, the Cross Island Parkway and the Hutchinson River Parkway.   Much to my amazement, the only traffic I encountered was on the will call line at the Hynes Center for my ticket.

After I got my ticket, I entered the gym shortly after tipoff.  Glover made two free throws to put the Gaels up 4-3.  I noticed the Hynes Center was pretty much full, which was somewhat surprising considering the school was on break for the long Thanksgiving weekend.. However, Iona had received a lot of local press as perhaps the best team in the local New York City Area.  Going into the game, the Gaels were the top ranked team in John Templon's Big Apple Buckets NYC Power Poll.  And given St Joseph's long history as a mid major basketball power, it made sense that the gym was near capacity.  And the 2,611 that were in attendance were treated to one hell of a game.

St Joseph's showed early on that they had about as much talent as Iona had on offense.  Langston Galloway's three point barrage and C.J. Aiken's all around play riddled the Gaels defense early on in the game. The Hawks had a 33-20 lead midway through the first half.  Up to that point, Iona's defensive play was seriously lacking.

The Gaels called timeout and then turned up the pressure defense.  As a result, Iona went on a run, forcing a lot of Hawks' turnovers and actually tied the game at thirty nine with a little less than three minutes left.  Iona's offensive plan was a simple one.  First, it was Machado driving the lane, often "Feeding the Beast", as in get the ball to Glover, who scored at will on the Hawks.  However if Machado saw St Joe's trying to concentrate on Glover,  Machado would either hit the layup or kick it to Kyle Smyth for an open three pointer.

St Joe's would regain the lead and entered halftime up 45-43.  Both teams got a rousing ovation from the fans as they left the court together by the Gaels bench for the locker room.   The halftime entertainment started off with the typical dance team performing with lousy canned music.

After that mercifully ended,  the fans were treated to the Iona Pep Band's terrific renditions of popular songs.  The Iona pep band is made up of  older gentlemen and plays only at men's games.  They play during most timeouts, at halftime and at the end of the game.  Their renditions of Steely Dan's "Peg", Edgar Winter's "Frankenstein", Rick James' "Brickhouse", and George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic's "We Want the Funk", among others, are absolutely terrific.  After the game, my friend Mal and I actually went over and thanked them for playing.

The second half was a back and forth affair. It was very close for the last twenty minutes of regulation, with no team getting a lead larger than five points. For Iona, Glover and Machado continued to score at will, but Smyth was now added to the mix, as he contributed several three pointers. But Galloway, Aiken, Carl Jones and Ronald Roberts kept St Joe's right there.

With 30 seconds left, the Hawks were up two, 83-81.  Machado was fouled and had a chance to tie.  But he only made one of two free throws and Iona was forced to foul.  However, Carl Jones returned the favor and missed his second free throw.   Machado found Taaj Ridley for a layup to tie the game at eighty four with eight seconds left.   With the fans stomping and chanting defense, Iona forced a turnover and the game went into overtime.

In overtime, Iona was up two 93-91 and had the ball on an inbounds play with about thirty seconds to play. Momo Jones was trapped by the Gaels bench, but the ball appeared to be knocked out of bounds by a Hawks' player.  However, the referee ruled St Joe's ball and Iona's coach, Tim Cluess was livid.  The Hawks would tie the score at ninety three and we went to a second overtime.

During the break before the start of the second overtime, Cluess had to be restrained by his assistant coaches and his players from going after the referee who made the call.  As the fans booed the referee's call, Cluess was fortunate that he wasn't called for a technical foul.  But his senior point guard wouldn't let him down.

Machado took over from there.  He would score seven of the Gaels' nine points in the second overtime.  The Hawks, who only really had a seven man rotation, seemed gassed at the end.  Iona would make the fans' holiday drive home a happy one, winning 104-99.  Glover had a huge double double with 34 points and 15 rebounds, while Machado's double double was 33 points and 10 assists.  Carl Jones led St Joe's with 25 points while Roberts had 20 points for the Hawks.

As we left the Hynes Center, I knew I would be back here soon.  Iona plays their next home game Monday night vs. LIU.  The Blackbirds were one of the top scoring teams in the country last season, averaging eighty two points per game.

Just the kind of tempo the Gaels like to play.