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.
SPRINGFIELD, MA - The seventh seeded Iona College women's basketball team advanced to the quarterfinals of the 2012 MAAC Championship with a thrilling 61-60 overtime win over tenth seeded Rider Thursday afternoon at the MassMutual Center.
The Gaels struggled throughout the first half, with their first bucket coming at the 13:50 mark on a layup by freshman guard
Aleesha Powell. Rider's Emily Fazzini's jumper at 4:19 gave the Broncs their biggest lead of the half at 23-10. Freshman guard
Damika Martinez knocked down a jumper with one second remaining to cut the Rider lead to 25-14 at the half. Iona shot just 20.0% (6-30) in the first half, while the Broncs shot 38.5% (10-26) in the first twenty minutes of play.
After Rider opened its scoring in the second half with a free throw by Fazzini, the Gaels went on a 21-1 run behind 21 points from Martinez to take a 35-27 lead with 9:57 remaining. A pair of free throws by Martinez gave Iona its biggest lead of the contest, 44-34, with 5:20 left.
From there, a three point by Kornelija Valiuskyte capped a 10-1 run by Rider to cut the Iona lead to just one, 45-44, with 2:44 remaining. After an offensive putback by Carleigh Brown, Powell converted a three-point play to give the Gaels a four point lead with 41 seconds left.
Brown converted another putback to cut the lead to just two. From there, Rider fouled Powell to send her to the line for two shots.
After Powell missed both shots from the charity stripe, Brown grabbed the rebound and gave it to Fazzini who missed a layup with two seconds left, but MyNeshia McKenzie followed the miss and recorded a putback layup as time expired to send the game to overtime.
The Broncs drew first blood in the overtime with a layup by Caitlin Bopp, but was balanced out by three free throws by Powell within the next minute. Two more putbcks by Brown gave the Broncs a 60-56 lead with 1:36 remaining in the game.
Martinez cut the Rider lead to just two after a converted layup at the 1:06 mark. After Martinez missed a layup on the next Iona possession, junior guard
Diana Hubbard grabbed the offensive board to keep the Gaels alive with 18 seconds remaining as Iona called a timeout.
Out of the timeout, Powell drove to the basket was fouled by Brown, sending her back to the line with an opportunity to tie the game.
After Powell made the first, she missed the second and fouled Fazzini with 16 seconds left with the Gaels down one. Fazzini missed the front end of a one and one and Powell went coast to coast and converted a layup with two seconds left to send the Gaels to the next round.
Powell led all scorers with 22 points, including 12 from the foul line. Martinez added 19 points and six rebounds. Brown led the Broncs with 14 points and Bopp recorded a double-double with 12 points and 13 rebounds.
The Gaels look to advance to the semifinals Friday morning when they take on second seeded Fairfield at 9:30 am.
