NEW ROCHELLE, NY – The Iona College women's basketball team held off Saint Peter's to secure its second straight victory. Three different players scored in double-figures for the Gaels, led by 16 points from freshman Juana Camilion.

GAME SUMMARY

The Gaels raced out to a big lead early on against the Peacocks, scoring nine unanswered after letting up five points to start. Seven different players scored for Iona in the opening period, and they scored 20 of the final 22 points of the quarter.
 
A little over two minutes into the second period, Monica Barefield and Juana Camilion knocked down three-point tries and a Jodi-Marie Ramil turnaround inside the paint extended Iona's lead to 21 points and forced a Saint Peter's timeout. The Gaels' lead grew as large as 25 points at one point, but the Peacocks chipped away with an 8-0 run right before the half to make it a 37-20 lead. 
 
The leading scorer in the MAAC among all freshmen, Briyanah Richardson, finally got on the board in the third quarter, scoring inside to cut the deficit to 13 for Saint Peter's. D'Aviyon Magazine followed that up with a bucket of her own to thin Iona's lead to 10 points before both offenses went extremely cold over the course of the final five minutes of the third quarter. Iona went scoreless for over five minutes, making just 1-of-12 FG and Saint Peter's was scoreless for the last four minutes of the frame and was 1-of-9 from the floor. Camilion put in a layup on the final possession of the quarter to end the scoring drought and give the Maroon & Gold a 44-33 lead after three.
 
The fourth quarter began with a couple of Zoe Pero buckets inside that brought Saint Peter's back within single-digits for the first time since the early part of the first quarter. Tori Lesko scored Iona's first points of the quarter on a baseline jumper with 5:47 left, but Pero answered with another score of her own inside to keep it a two-possession game. Mwai buried a three-pointer right before the media timeout and Rachu put her third one in from downtown afterwards to force a Saint Peter's timeout. Iona's 7-0 run ended when Pero scored her 23^rdpoint of the game inside. From that point on it became a battle from the free throw line; Saint Peter's came as close as two points with 33 seconds left but Iona salted away the win with good defense and perfect free throw shooting to win its second game in a row.

NOTABLE NUGGETS

• Lesko finished with nine points, 13 rebounds, six assists and one steal. With one more point, the redshirt sophomore could've had her second double-double of her career.
• Iona was outscored 37-24 in the second half; the Maroon & Gold scored just seven points in the third quarter and shot 6-30 from the field in the second half.
• Camilion scored a team-high 16 points for the Gaels, shooting 5-12 from the field and a perfect 4-4 from the charity stripe.
• Iona limited Saint Peter's to 2-of-18 shooting from beyond the arc. The Peacocks connected on just one of its last 17 tries from long range.
• Pero scored a game-high 27 points in a losing effort for the visiting Peacocks.
• The win marks the first time Iona has won back-to-back games since the team defeated Fairfield and Saint Peter's back in February of 2017.
• Head coach Billi Chambers is still undefeated (11-0) against the Peacocks during her time with the Gaels.

UP NEXT

Iona will play its final home game of the season on Feb. 22 when they host local foe Manhattan at 7 p.m. The game will be broadcasted on ESPN+.

SOCIAL MEDIA