Westchester County basketball fans will have a hometown favorite to root for in this year’s men’s college basketball tournament, better known as March Madness. The Iona men’s basketball team defeated Monmouth on Monday night by a score of 81 to 60 to win the Metro-Atlantic Athletic Conference tournament, which gives the team automatic entry into the big brackets.
The win for Iona gives it four consecutive MAAC championships and four straight trips to the National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament. These winning ways at Iona are a testament to the great coaching of Tim Cluess, who is in his ninth season at Iona and has recorded 8-20 win seasons in those nine years.
Local players on the Iona Gaels’ hoops team include freshman Payton Hudson from Yonkers, who attended Stepinac High School, and senior guard Rickey McGill from Spring Valley, who has now gone to March Madness in each of his four years at Iona.
McGill, who was named the MAAC tournament’s most valuable player and is Iona’s only senior, is the first MAAC player in conferences history to win the conference tournament and play in March Madness in every one of his four years.
This year’s Iona hoops team started out slow, with a 2-9 record, and ending with a 17- 15 record, winning its last nine games. “I’m so proud that Iona now is the team that everyone is going to look at and has raised the bar to four in a row,” said Cluess.
The coach is correct in one way: By appearing in March Madness now for the fourth straight year, the eyes of basketball fans across the country will once again be on Iona College, and many young high school basketball stars will think about attending the college.
Junior guard Asante Gist, who scored a game-high 22 points in the MAAC title game, comes from New Jersey and the St. Anthony’s High School program. Tajuan Agee, another star on the team, comes from Chicago.
Iona College in New Rochelle is on the national map for college basketball. Good luck in March Madness, with the brackets coming out Sunday night to tell us where and who Iona will play.