NEW ROCHELLE, NY - In what was an extremely close game throughout, Iona picked a bad time to go down by six points. There were only 48 seconds left, and while the Hynes Athletics Center had been rocking all night, a little bit of life was sucked out of the crowd.

In danger of starting 0-4 in head coach Tim Cluess' first season, the Iona College men's basketball team rallied to tie the game, and survived two overtimes to defeat Richmond 81-77 in their home opener.

Junior guard Jermel Jenkins was the hero. He hit two huge three-pointers, including one with 3.6 seconds left in regulation to tie the game at 67. It was an off-balance shot that came after a brief scramble to secure the ball near midcourt.

"It took a lot of heart to take that shot," backcourt mate Scott Machado said. "He takes shots like that before we start practice, just playing around."

Although a lot more was on the line this time, Jenkins delivered. He finished with 18 points and did a good job defending Richmond's Kevin Anderson, the reigning Atlantic 10 Player of the Year. Anderson scored 24 but it took him 18 shots to get it in a game where every possession proved to be critical.

While there was plenty of sloppy play—the teams combined for 30 turnovers, many of them unforced errors—there were some highlight-worthy plays as well. With just under five minutes left in the first half, Machado drove the lane and faked a pass to forward Mike Glover. Acting as if he was going to take it in himself, Machado then dropped a no-look pass over his shoulder and Glover threw down a thunderous dunk to give Iona a 24-19 lead.

This happened shortly after Richmond's Josh Duinker (pronounced "Dunker") failed to live up to his name, missing a wide-open, point-blank lay-up.

The Gaels led by six at half (their largest lead was eight), but some stalled offensive possessions allowed Richmond to take the lead in the final minute. But the raucous Iona crowd willed the Gaels to victory. "Since I've been here, that was the loudest I've ever heard the crowd," said Machado, who scored a career-high 28 points. 

Alejo Rodriguez felt the same way. "The crowd was unbelievable. They were in it from the start. They pushed us. Once we got into overtime, we knew we couldn't lose it." It was Rodriguez who secured a miss and put in the lay-up for the final basket of the game. He finished with 13 rebounds.

Rodriguez's frontcourt partner, Glover, scored 17 on 9-of-12 shooting and pulled down a game-high 17 boards.

The win was Iona's first of the season after dropping three in the World Vision Classic in Cleveland. "This difference between today and the weekend is that our guys didn't stop fighting," Cluess said. "They found the ways to make the plays at the end."

Cluess gets his first win—one he won't even forget—against a Richmond team that went to the NCAA Tournament last year and could easily return this season.

"It was important for us to come home and establish our home court," Rodriguez said. This is our house. We don't want anybody to beat us here."