My friends and I were at Iona, where my friend, Tony Bozzella, was coaching Iona in their first ever-postseason game, a Women’s NIT first round game against LIU Brooklyn, his former team, the regular season NEC champion. It was an emotional game for Coach Bozzella, who wanted to win this game very badly for his own reasons.
It was a very entertaining though intense first half, as both teams shot the lights out as Iona went out to a 46-41 halftime lead despite LIU Brooklyn shooting 78 percent from the field, including 6 of 6 from the three point arc. Iona shot 58 percent from the field from the first half due to 11 more attempts as the taller Gaels outrebounded the Blackbirds 34-21 in the game. MAAC Player of the Year, Martina Weber had 16 first half points for the Gaels. At the start of the second half, Coach Bozzella glanced up at us in the crowd, rolled his eyes and gave a deep sigh, as if he knew what was about to happen.
The Blackbirds proceeded to start the second half on a 11-0 run as NEC Freshman of the Year Valerie Nainima came out on fire as LIU went up 52-46, then extended the lead to 68-56 with 10:57 left as the Blackbirds hit their first three point shots (which made it 9 for 9 at the time for them). Then Tiara Headen, who scored all 15 of her points in the second half, and Weber led the Gaels back, as Coach Bozzella switched to a press that wore the smaller Blackbirds down. The Gaels tied it at 73 with 5:47 left on a Thazina Cook layup.
Then, the most critical play in the game occurred. As LIU’s Mikaelar Whippy went in for a layup, she made contact with Martina Weber and a foul was called. It seemed Weber did not have position and had committed a blocking foul, which would have been her fourth foul. However the referee called it an offensive foul and Iona gained possession. The Gaels would take the lead 75-73 on a layup by Weber but the Blackbirds would regain the lead on Nainima’s last three pointer of the game. The Gaels would then go on a 11-1 run to end the game, winning 91-79 and Iona had its first ever postseason in their first postseason game.
Weber led the Gaels with 27 points including 11 of 12 from the line. Headen had her 15 second half points on 6 of 8 shooting, while Lauren DeFalco and Toni Horvath added 14 and 13 points respectively. Nainima had 30 points to lead all scorers on 10 of 15 from the field, including 6 of 6 from the three point arc (the Blackbirds ended 10-14 from three). With the win, the Gaels travel to Bloomington to take on Indiana on Sunday.
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