BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Dyree Wilson scored 14 of his team's first 30 points, helping top-seeded Iona battle to a 64-52 win over Loyola of Maryland in Saturday's Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference quarterfinal.
Earl Johnson scored 17 points and Wilson finished with 18 as the Gaels snapped a three-game losing streak while playing their first game in six days after getting a bye through Friday's preliminary round.
The defending champion Gaels (20-10), who won a MAAC tournament game in Buffalo for the first time in three trips, will meet fourth-seed Marist in Sunday's noon semifinal.
Marist defeated Rider 70-58 earlier on Saturday.
John Reimold, the conference's rookie of the year, scored 16 and added seven
rebounds for Loyola, which has lost nine straight to Iona going back to the
1997-98 season.
The ninth-seeded Greyhounds (6-23), coming off Friday's 60-58 preliminary
round win over Fairfield, are now 2-8 in MAAC quarterfinal games.
Trailing 35-20 at the break, Loyola mounted its lone charge early in the second half. Reimold hit consecutive 3-point baskets to cap a 12-0 run as the Greyhounds cut the Gaels' lead to 37-32 five minutes into the period.
Iona responded with a 13-1 run, capped by Maceo Wofford's 3-point basket as the Greyhounds went more than six minutes without scoring a field goal. Brian
Carroll ended the drought by hitting a 15-footer with 8:17 left, but the
Greyhounds never got within seven points again.
Iona first took command from the opening minute, building a 13-0 lead five minutes into the game as Loyola missed its first seven shots and committed three turnovers.
Iona has now reached the 20-win plateau in five of its last six seasons, one of only 12 schools -- including Duke, North Carolina, Arizona and UCLA -- in
the nation to achieve that feat.
Game summary
Clive Bentick put back his own miss with a tenth of a second remaining to lift
Canisius to the win over Niagara in MAAC quarterfinal play.
Bentick, who scored 15 of his career-high 26 points in the second half, drove the length of the floor and missed a tough four-foot jumper. Bentick,
however, got his own rebound in the right post and banked in a layin, sparking
a wild celebration on the floor.
Bentick's dramatics came less than seven seconds after second-seeded
Niagara's Daryl Greene tied the game at 70-70 with a 3-point basket.
The seventh-seeded Golden Griffins (19-10) advance to Sunday's 2:30 p.m. semifinal, and will meet the winner of Saturday's late quarterfinal between
third-seeded Siena and sixth-seeded Manhattan.
Canisius has won eight of its last 10, and its third straight in tournament play over the Purple Eagles.
Isaiah Stewart hit a 3-pointer from the left corner
with 4.2 seconds left to give Siena a win over Manhattan
in the MAAC quarterfinals.
Third-seeded Siena (20-10), which finished the regular season in a three-way tie for first place with Iona and Niagara, will play No. 7 Canisius in the semifinals Sunday. Canisius (19-10) upset the second-seeded Purple Eagles 72-70 earlier Saturday.
Manhattan (14-15), the sixth seed, played without Justin Jackette, its
second-leading scorer, and it hurt. Jackette, who was averaging 11.4 points per game, hurt a knee in the final game of the season against Iona and watched from
the bench in street clothes.
Stewart finished with 17 points, Justin Miller added 16, and Dwayne Archbold had 14 for Siena.
Bruce Seals had 20 points and Jared Johnson had nine points and 10 rebounds for Manhattan.
Rick Smith scored 18 points and Drew Samuels added 17
as
Marist struggled past Rider in the quarterfinals.
The victory avenged a 100-82 loss at Rider (16-12) two weeks ago.
This was the first meeting between the teams in the MAAC Tournament since
the former Northeast Conference rivals joined the conference four years ago,
and it was a sloppy affair. Marist (17-12) scored 28 points off Rider's 22 turnovers,
and that spelled the difference.
Mario Porter, the MAAC's second-leading scorer, led the Broncs with 20
points and Jon McClark had 11 and 10 rebounds.
Nick Eppehimer had 10 points and seven rebounds, and Matt Tullis had 10
rebounds and six points for the Red Foxes.
Marist fell behind 10-2 at the outset, but three baskets by Samuels helped
build a 12-10 lead with 13:34 remaining in the opening half, and they never
trailed again.
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