EMMITSBURG, MD — The Iona University women's basketball team was unable to overcome a slow start at Knott Arena, falling to Mount St. Mary's 65=55 on Sunday afternoon. The Gaels looked for a second half rally in the first Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference road matchup but the Mountaineers pulled ahead in the final quarter.
 
Graduate student Isabellah Middleton posted her second straight 20-point effort, registering a season-high 22 points to pair with 11 rebounds for the Gaels. It was Middleton's fourth double-double of the season and she added a team-high three steals. Junior Zoey Ward added 10 points and nine rebounds. Junior Mya Zaccagnini dished out a team-high four assists to go with four rebounds and six points.

THE RUNDOWN

Mount St. Mary's came out firing in its second home game of the opening conference weekend with a 12-0 opening run. Iona finally broke through the Mountaineers zone with 4:08 to go on a jumper from Ward who would follow that up with another basket from the top of the key. Down the stretch both teams traded six points each to give the home team a 18-10 first quarter lead.
 
Iona punched back to start the second stanza with an 8-4 spurt with triples from senior Ale Civera and Zaccagnini and a layup from Middleton to force a Mount St. Mary's timeout. From the scoring slowed down as both sides netted four points apiece the final 6:42 of the first half for a 28-22 Mountaineers halftime lead.
 
The Mountaineers lead would build to nine just three minutes into the third frame. A jumper from Civera kicked off a 9-0 Iona run from there. An old fashioned three-point play from graduate student Ella Fajardo followed. Middleton then added a steal and score before a fastbreak layup from Fajardo knotted the game up at 33-33. Mount St. Mary's would hold the slight edge from there as Iona countered with a triple from sophomore Adrianna Gonzalez to make it a one-point game with 1:21 to go. The Mountaineers would pull ahead on a buzzer beating shot to take a 41-38 advantage.
 
It was back and forth to start the final stanza with Middleton pacing the Iona offense with five points the first three minutes. Mount St. Mary's pulled away with a 6-0 run over the next 2:18 of gameplay. The closest the Gaels would get was within four with 2:27 left but the Mountaineers closed the game on an 11-5 run to take the opening game of the season series between the two schools.

IONA PERFORMERS

• Middleton posted her third 20-point showing of the year with a season-high 22 points on a season-high nine made field goals. She also grabbed a season-high 11 rebounds for her league leading fourth double-double of the season. Middleton added a team-high three steals on the defensive end.
• Ward registered her seventh straight double-digit scoring effort with 10 points. She finished just shy of a double-double with nine rebounds. Ward also added two assists and a pair of steals.
• Zaccagnini dished out a team-high four assists to pair with six points and four rebounds.
• Civera added seven points, seven rebounds and three assists while Fajardo also chipped in seven points, two rebounds, two assists and two steals.

THE OPPONENT

• Gabrielle Kennerly tallied a game-high 30 points to lead Mount St. Mary's.
• Berlynn Carlson recorded 10 points and nine rebounds
• Jaedyn Jamison finished with eight points, a game-high 12 rebounds and four blocks. 

TEAM STATS

• Mount St. Mary's led with a 38.7% field goal percentage while Iona was held to a 28.4% field goal percentage.
• Neither team was sharp from downtown as the Gaels recorded five triples at 20.8% clip and the Mountaineers made three triples at a 20% rate.
• Mount St. Mary's held a 49-44 advantage over Iona on the rebounding battle.
• Both teams were even with 11 points off turnovers as Mount St. Mary's committed 14 while Iona had 10 turnovers.

UP NEXT

The Gaels will take a break for the Christmas holiday before returning to action on Monday, December 29 with a 4 p.m. matchup against Rider at the Hynes Athletic Center.