NEW ROCHELLE, NY - The Iona College men's basketball team held on for a 78-73 victory over Cleveland State in non-conference action at the Hynes Center. The Gaels (1-0) earned a season-opening win over the Vikings (0-1) and avenging a loss from its first game in 2013. Junior Isaiah Williams led the Gaels with 18 points and seven rebounds and hit a layup in the final minute of the contest to give the Maroon & Gold the lead for good.

Rookie Schadrac Casimir had an impressive debut for the Gaels notching 17 points with four rebounds, two assists and two steals. Senior David Laury notched 15 points, seven boards, two assists and a block in 39 minutes of play. Junior A.J. English was the Gaels' fourth performer in double-figures with 14 points to go along with six assists and two steals. Junior Kelvin Amayo and graduate Jeylani Dublin made their Iona debuts scoring eight and six points respectively.

Trailing by two points with under four minutes to play in the first half, Iona completed the frame with a 9-0 run and led 39-32 at the break. The run was capped by two Laury free throws with a tenth of a second remaining.

Iona stayed hot to open the second half, scoring the first eight points in less than two minutes, extending the run to 17-0 while opening a 47-52 lead following an English three-ball at 18:02. The Gaels led by as many as 20 points following a Laury layup at 14:48. The Vikings did not go quietly, chipping away with 11 straight points following their largest deficit of the game to pull within single-digits with 12 minutes remaining. Another Cleveland State 10-0 run put the visitors ahead by a point with 4:11 remaining. Iona turned up the defense allowing just a single field goal the rest of the way as the Vikings shot 1-for-7 in the final stretch of the game. Cleveland State had a chance to tie with the shot clock off, but Casimir corralled a rebound on a missed three-point attempt and calmly sank two free throws with three ticks left to seal the 78-73 victory.

Trey Lewis and Marlin Mason led four double-digit Viking scorers with 16 points. Lewis led with five assists, while Anton Grady grabbed nine rebounds.

The Gaels out shot their opponent 47.9%-42.2%. CSU held a 39-31 advantage on the boards. Iona went to the line 37 times in the contest, converting 22 attempts in the win.

The Gaels are back in action Tuesday morning at 7:00 am at Wofford in Spartanburg, SC as the two teams take part in ESPN's Annual Tipoff Marathon.