Iona Joins CIT "Final Four" with 78-63 Win Over Buffalo

The Iona Gaels played their first home postseason game in 15 years and did not disappoint their fans and students by using strong outside shooting from junior Jermel Jenkins and 28 points generated off turnovers to defeat visiting Buffalo 78-63 in the quarterfinals of the CollegeInsider.com Tournament. 

Jenkins, the junior from Jersey City, made seven of 11 three-point attempts and 8-of-15 overall from the field to generate his career-best offensive performance. Leading the Bulls with a double-double was 6'6" freshman Javon McCrea from Newark, NY, who came off the bench to score 29 points on 13 of 16 shots made from the field while grabbing 10 rebounds.  

Iona will now play in the CIT Final Four against Eastern Tennessee on Saturday at 2 PM.

In the other quarterfinal action of the tournament:

SMU now 20-14, had a Monday night quarterfinal win 57-50 over Northern Iowa. Eastern Tennessee defeated Ohio University 82-73 in Johnson City, TN Tuesday night. The Buccaneers were led by the 27 points of Justin Tubbs who made seven three-point shots.

Santa Clara won the late game Tuesday night 95-91 over San Francisco.  The Broncos received great performances from their guards in an up-tempo game against the Dons. Backcourt players like Evan Roquemore had 30 points including five of seven on three-point shots, while Kevin Foster had 27 points including 12 of 15 from the foul line.

The Mustangs will host Santa Clara, also 20-14, on Friday night at 7 PM in Dallas.

Eastern Tennessee will host Iona College on Saturday at 2 PM.

Here are the results of earlier rounds:

THE 2011 CIT SCHEDULE/RESULTS
All times EST

MONDAY
SMU 57, Northern Iowa 50 

TUESDAY
East Tennessee State 82, Ohio 73 

Iona 78, Buffalo 63 

Santa Clara 95, San Francisco 91 

FIRST ROUND (March 14-16)

MONDAY March 14
Buffalo 75, Quinnipiac 68   

TUESDAY
Ohio 65, Marshall 64 

East Tennessee State 76, Furman 63

Jacksonville 71, East Carolina 66 (OT) 

Northern Iowa 84, Rider 50  

Air Force 77, North Dakota 67 

Santa Clara 68, Northern Arizona 63 

Hawaii 76, Portland 64 

WEDNESDAY

Western Michigan 74, Tennessee Tech 66 

Iona 85, Valparaiso 77 

SMU 64, Oral Roberts 57 (OT) 

San Francisco 81, Idaho 73  

SECOND ROUND (March 18-19)

FRIDAY
Santa Clara 88, Air Force 75  
 

SATURDAY

 
Buffalo 49, Western Michigan 48 

SMU 63, Jacksonville 62 

San Francisco 77, Hawaii 74 

Tuesday night was Iona College's first opportunity to host a postseason game since an National Invitation Tournament game in 1996 against St. Joseph's. That night Iona lost 82-78.

When I was a graduate student at Iona in 1983, the Gaels hosted St. Bonaventure in an opening-round NIT game defeating the Bonnie 90-76.  The Gaels went on to play the second round at Lincoln, and Nebraska lost to the Cornhuskers 85-73.

It was a festive night Tuesday as longtime Gael's fans know a meaningful game like this doesn't happen very often. 

A good crowd of 1,638 attended the first NCAA postseason game in New Rochelle since 1996 and the third time ever.

The cheerleaders, dance team and live band provided a lively atmosphere and energy to support the Gaels against a strong Buffalo team playing it's third road game of the tournament. 

Prior to the start of the game, Iona College cross country runner Leonard Korir was honored for winning the first NCAA championship in Iona history when he won the NCAA Men's Indoor Track and Field 5,000 national championship on March 11th.

Leonard Korir who is from Iten, Kenya won the title at the 2011 NCAA Men's Indoor Track and Field national championship held at Texas A&M University. Korir became the first national champion in Iona athletics history.

"That was phenomenal," said an ecstatic head coach Ricardo Santos. "Lenny has worked extremely hard this year and it has paid off. Both the coaching staff and Lenny believed he could do it and he went out there, gritted his teeth and wouldn't give up the lead, simply awesome."

Korir blazed a time of 13:26.01 setting a new NCAA Championship and Iona College record in the 5K event. The previous championship standard was 13:28.93, set on Mar. 14th, 2003 by Arkansas' Alistair Cragg. Iona's record was held by standout graduate Richard Kiplagat, a time of 13:39.87 set at the Tyson Invitational in 2006. Korir's time was nearly four seconds faster than Craig's mark and nearly 14 seconds faster than Kiplagat's time.

Congratulations to Leonard and all in the Track and Field program at Iona.

Iona's Cheerleaders, Dance Team and Band do a great job at every Gael's home game to create an exciting atmosphere for college basketball.

Iona came into the game after being upset in the Metro Atlantic Championship Game and losing the conference's NCAA invitation to Saint Peter's. In its first round CIT game the Gaels went out to Valparaiso and defeated the Crusaders 85-77.

Iona senior guard Rashon Dwight is defended by Buffalo freshman Auraum Nuiriankh from Baltimore, MD in the early going of the game.

Buffalo came into the game after winning two CIT road games at Quinnipiac 75-68 and at Western Michigan 49-48.  Their leading scorers during the season have been junior guard Zach Filzen at 15.4 points per game and senior guard Byron Mulkey who averaged 13.1. 

Freshman Auraum Nuiriankh from Baltimore, Maryland pictured here guarded by Randy Dezouvre of Iona, was playing in his eighth straight game for the Bulls.

Freshman forward Javon McCrea has scored 11.2 points per game coming off the bench and 6.4 rebounds per contest. 

Pictured here guarded by Scott Machado and Alejo Rodriquez, McCrea entered the game with less than two minutes gone by and immediately gave the Bulls offense from the inside. 

In the first half the 6'6" McCrea made seven of ten shots mostly from the inside and scored 16 points.

Iona's senior forward Alejo Rodriquez (#21 following a shot by Trinity Fields) helped Iona to an early 6-0 lead on a layup to open the game, followed by two free throws by Sean Armand and another layup.

Alejo had four rebounds and six points in the first half.

The Bulls played a strong first half taking the lead several times. At 11:46 Javon McCrea hit a layup to take a 21-17 lead over Iona.

Iona went out to a five-point lead 26-21 with 9:36 left on consecutive threes by Sean Armand, Jermel Jenkins and then Armand again. 

A layup and subsequent foul shot by MCCrea, followed by a three by Nuiriankh and another lay up by MCCrea gave the Bulls another four-point lead with 3:24 left in the quarter.

Iona sophomore forward Chris Pelcher played six minutes in the first half giving a breather to senior Alejo Rodriquez. He grabbed four rebounds, hit one free throw and blocked a shot.  

With Iona down 34-30 with 2:58 left in the half, Iona junior Randy Dezouvre from Montreal made a two-point jumper. Sean Armand followed with a three-point shot to give Iona the lead at 35-34. 

Scott Macado added a free throw followed by a layup by UB's Javon MCCrea to retie the game at 36 all.

Iona took a five point half-time lead on a dunk by Alejo Rodriquez. and a three-point shot by Dezouvre.

Jermel Jenkins got Iona off to an eight-point lead with a three-point shot at 17:46 to open second-half scoring. 

After a layup from UB's Javon McCrea, Rashon Dwight got a layup to restore an eight-point lead with16:17 left.

With the Gaels gaining momentum, UB's Byron Mulkey made a three-point shot to bring the deficit to five, 46-41. 

McRea followed with a dunk to bring the Bulls to within three at 46-43. 

After the dunk by MCCrea brought the game within three, Scott Machado rushed the ball up court and passed to Mike Glover who went in alone on the basket with a full head of steam and made a statement dunk to give Iona a 48-43 lead with 15:02 left.

Although MCCrea answered with a two-point jumper a moment later, the Glover dunk appeared to be the turning point where Iona took control of the game. 

With 8:49 left, Mike Glover made a layup to start Iona on an eight point to one run with Jermel Jenkins contributing two three-point shots separated by a UB free-throw made by Jaween Alston.

At 7:25 left, Iona held the lead 62-50.

With 3:31 left, UB's Byron Mulkey made a three-point shot to bring the Iona lead back to nine, 67-58.  This was the last time the difference would be less than double digits. Scott Machado answered with six points to decide the contest.