Mike Ritz is currently a junior journalism major at Iona College. He is from Yorktown, New York and is a sports writer for the school newspaper, The Ionian. Mike has been the manager for the Iona women's basketball team since his freshman year. A lover of sports, he played four years of basketball in high school as well as four years of golf. Mike comes from an Iona family, both of his parents, Ron and Michelle, graduated from Iona as well as his sister, Jen, who played basketball for the Gaels for four years and graduated in 2008. Mike loves to be a part of the Iona family and aspires to be a successful sports writer when he graduates.
NEW ROCHELLE, NY - The Iona College women's basketball team suffered its first loss of the 2011-12 season on Saturday afternoon, falling to Villanova 76-47 in the championship game of the Iona Tip-Off Tournament, held at the Hynes Athletics Center.
Freshman
Aleesha Powell led the Gaels with 13 points, including three three-pointers and contributed four rebounds on the day.
“Aleesha played well for us today,” said head coach
Anthony Bozzella. “I was pleased with how well she handled Villanova's defense.”
Senior forward
Kristina Ford had 12 points and five rebounds for Iona, while freshman guard
Damika Martinez added 11 points, and led the Gaels with seven rebounds.
“We rushed a lot of our shots today,” said Bozzella. “We need to do a better job at valuing the basketball and play to our strengths.”
Villanova, who defeated 25th-ranked Michigan State Friday afternoon in the opening round contest of the tournament, shot an impressive 49% from the field in the contest, and drained 12 three pointers.
The win marked the 600th career win for Villanova head coach Harry Perretta, who becomes just the 22nd Division I coach to do so, and only the seventh coach in history to tally all 600 wins at one school.
Rachel Roberts led the Wildcats with 16 points, as she took tournament MVP while Iona senior guard
Suzi Fregosi and Ford landed spots on the All-tournament team.
Next up for Iona will be Bryant University on Nov. 15 at 7pm in Smithfield, Rhode Island.
