LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ- The Iona College men's basketball team fell to Rider 70-69 at Alumni Gym this afternoon. The Gaels (7-10, 2-4 MAAC) erased a 15-point second half deficit with five seconds to play, but a Rider free throw on the next possession proved to be the difference in the game. The Maroon & Gold connected on a school record 13 three-point field goals in the loss.

The first half was hotly contested with five ties and four lead changes. Sophomore Alejo Rodriguez' layup gave Iona its largest advantage of the game as Iona led 15-11 just 4:53 seconds into the contest. Both teams traded leads kept in the low single-digits through out the frame. Junior Ryan Thompson's runner at the buzzer put the Broncs (9-6, 4-1 MAAC) ahead by five points heading into halftime and gave the home team its largest lead of the half, 35-30.

Rider quickly took a double-digit lead to start the second half. Novar Gadson capped a 14-4 run with a three-pointer at 13:36 to put the score at 49-34. Iona answered with six straight points of their own to cut the deficit back to single-digits. Trailing 57-48 with 8:37 to play, Iona scored eight straight to cut the Broncs' lead to one at the 6:19 mark on Scott Machado's jumper with the shot clock expiring. It was as close as Iona would get until less than a minute to play. Junior Jonathan Huffman hit a tough three pointer from the wing to knot the score at 67-67 at 0:50. Gadson gave Rider a two-point lead with 24 ticks left on a layup on the next possession. Machado evened the score again with five seconds left as the Gaels were left in an eerily similar situation as their last trip to Alumni Gym.

Last season, Thompson went coast-to-coast - with just about as much time left on the clock - and tied the game at the end of regulation and force overtime. In today's game, it was Thompson again who was given the charge to go for the game winner. As he crossed half court along the side line, junior Milan Prodanovic was called for a foul just as Thompson appeared to have stepped out of bounds. With Rider in the double bonus, Thompson missed the first of two tries. He hit the second after a timeout to give the Broncs the decisive advantage. Freshman Jermel Jenkins got a solid look at the basket but his baseline three-point try rimmed out and Iona suffered its third loss overall and second MAAC loss of the season by a single-point.

Machado led the Gaels in scoring for the third game in a row and set a new career-high with 17 points. He also posted a team-best seven rebounds and six assists. Huffman matched his career-high with 15 points on the assistance of a 4-for-9 performance from behind the three-point line. Both Huffman and Machado had 11 points a piece in the second half. Trinity Fields had his second straight double-digit scoring effort posting 10 points while Jenkins added nine in the loss.

With 13 three point field goals, Iona set a new single-game standard for the statistic. The eclipsed their previous high of 12 in a game set on five different occasions. The last time the Gaels had 12 trifectas in a game was in a 77-62 win over URI at the Hynes Center on Dec. 27, 2004.

Thompson posted 19 points for Rider while senior Harris Mansell had 16 and Gadson added 10.

The Gaels return to action on their annual Western New York trip taking on Niagara on Thursday (Jan. 15) and Canisius on Saturday (Jan. 17).

Iona's top single-game three point efforts:
13 - 1/11/09 at Rider 
12 - 12/27/04 vs. Rhode Island
12 - 2/27/04 vs. Saint Peter's
12 - 1/15/00 vs. Loyola
12 - 2/9/98 vs. Canisius
12 - 12/14/96 at Cornell