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's season came to a close Friday morning with a 61-45 loss to number two seeded Fairfield in the quarterfinals of the MAAC championships in Springfield, Massachusetts.
The Gaels came out with a lot of energy to start the game, as a steal and transition layup by junior guard
Haley D'Angelo converted the first two points of the game. A layup by freshman guard
Aleesha Powell gave Iona what would be their biggest lead of the game, 10-5, with 14:37 remaining in the half.
From there, the Stags went on an 11-0 run led by five points from senior Taryn Johnson, to give Fairfield a 16-10 lead at the 8:15 mark, as they would not give up the lead for the rest of the game. A jumper by Powell with one second remaining cut the Stag lead to seven, as Fairfield was up 29-22 at the half. Iona shot 32% percent (7-22) from the field in the first including 0-6 from the three-point line, as Fairfield shot 43.5% on 10-23 shooting.
With the Gaels down 39-27 with 16 minutes left, Fairfield went on a 15-3 run in the next ten minutes of play with six different players contributing to put the game out of reach. Fairfield shot the lights out in the second half, converting 50% from the field, as the Gaels struggled throughout the final 20 minutes of play, shooting just 29%.
Powell led the Gaels with 18 points, including 10 free throws, as freshman guard
Damika Martinez added 12 points. Johnson led all scorers with 19 points, and junior Katelyn Linney had 11 points.
