NEW ROCHELLE, NY - The Iona College men's basketball team earned a 87-66 victory over Fairleigh Dickinson in non-conference action at the Hynes Center. The Gaels (7-3) led wire-to-wire over the Knights (3-5) and earned their seventh straight victory.

The Maroon & Gold scored the first six points of the contest and built a double-digit lead when junior Jermel Jenkins drained a three-pointer to make the score 17-5 at the 11:12 mark. Iona continued its run and led 29-19 less than three minutes later on a pick-and-roll dunk by sophomore Chris Pelcher off a feed from Jenkins at 8:24. Fairleigh Dickinson got no closer than 17 in the half as the Gaels took a 49-27 advantage into the break.

The Knights scored seven straight to start the second half cutting Iona's lead to 15. FDU freshman Mathias Seilund drained a three-pointer with 12:43 remaining to and the Gaels' advantage was cut to 59-47. A 7-2 run capped by senior Rashon Dwight's three-pointer put the lead back to 17 with under 10 minutes to play. Jenkins put the Gaels back up by 20 points with another trifecta at 3:36. The Maroon & Gold held on to the 20+ point advantage and finished the game with the 87-66 victory.

Junior Mike Glover posted his fifth-straight double-double with a game-high 20 points and 12 rebounds. Glover shot 8-for-14 from the field and averaged 24 points and 11 rebounds in two matchups this week after being named the USBWA National Player of the Week.

Junior Scott Machado was on pace but fell short of becoming just the second player in school history to record a triple-double, tallying 13 points, eight assists and seven rebounds. The MAAC's steals leader also recorded three swipes in the contest.

Sophomore Kyle Smyth recorded 15 of his 16 points in the contest in the first half, shooting 5-of-8 from the field with three three-point field goals. His long distance running mate, Jenkins, also had three trifectas and had nine points and a career-best eight assists for the Maroon & Gold.

Pelcher continued his solid play of late, contributing a career-best 12 points off the bench. He was 5-of-8 from the field with four rebounds in 19 minutes of play. Dwight had seven points with two assists and two steals.

The Gaels shot 55.0% as a team, just shy of its season-high of 56.1% set last Sunday vs. Niagara. The team recorded 20+ assists for the fifth time this year and for the fourth straight game. Iona out rebounded the Knights 33-31. The Maroon & Gold is now 6-0 when out rebounding their opponent

Fairleigh Dickinson junior Nate Gibbs had 13 points and seven rebounds to lead his squad. Seniors Kamil Svrdlik and Mike Scott had 12 and 10 respectively.

The win was the 998th in Iona College men's basketball history that dates back to 1940-41. The Gaels look for 999 and their eighth straight when next Saturday (Dec. 18) when they travel to Syracuse, NY to take on the No. 8/7 Orange at the Carrier Dome.  The game will be aired live on SportsNet NY (SNY) in the Metropolitan Area.

Score by Periods                1st  2nd   Total
Fairleigh Dickinson...........   27   39  -   66
Iona College..................   49   38  -   87