March 5, 2006
Final Stats
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - Ricky Soliver scored a career-high 31 points, leading Iona to a 100-84 victory over Marist in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference tournament semifinals Sunday night.
Soliver, who finished 10-of-18, made his first five field-goal attempts and five free throws of the second half, sparking a surge that broke the game open for the Gaels (22-7). Steve Burtt added 30 points and Kiril Wachsmann had 18 to help Iona advance to the MAAC championship game for the 10th time in the tournament's 25-year history and first since 2001.
The Gaels will face St. Peter's Monday night with an automatic NCAA tournament berth on the line. St. Peter's beat Manhattan 84-74 earlier in the day, upsetting the conference's regular-season champion.
Jared Jordan scored 18 and Ben Farmer 17 for Marist (19-10). The Red Foxes failed to advance to the MAAC title game for the first time since joining the conference in 1997.
Tied at 46 at the half, the Gaels hit their first 10 attempts and built a 74-62 edge with 9:35 left. That's when Soliver completed a three-point play after he was fouled while tipping in Burtt's miss - Iona's first miss of the period.
Marist, which missed only seven of 23 attempts in the first half, couldn't keep up, never closing to within five points.
The 184 combined points mark the fifth most scored in the MAAC tournament, 12 short of the record set in a regulation game. Iona's 100 points were also the fifth most scored by one team in a tournament game.
