SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - The Marist men's basketball team saw its season come to an end with an 87-63 loss to Iona in the quarterfinal round of the 2012 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Men's Basketball Championship at the MassMutual Center on Saturday.
Freshman swingman Chavaughn Lewis (Queens, N.Y.) led the Red Foxes with 25 points. Freshman point guard Isaiah Morton (Richland, N.J.) had 17 points and four assists against just one turnover. Sophomore forward Adam Kemp (Sherrill, N.Y.) finished with eight points, a team-high nine rebounds, three assists and a block.
Iona finished with four double-digit scorers. Mike Glover had team highs with 29 points and seven rebounds. Scott Machado finished with 18 points, eight assists and six rebounds. Lamont Jones and Sean Armand added 11 and 10 points, respectively.
Marist got off to a quick start, as the Red Foxes scored the game's first four points and jumped out to an 11-2 lead at the 17:11 mark. Iona then answered with an 11-2 spurt of its own to tie the game at 13 apiece at the 12:48 mark. The Red Foxes maintained a slim advantage for most of the first half, as Iona didn't grab its first lead until Machado hit a jumper with 6:11 left in the half to give his team a 25-23 lead. That was the first of five lead changes which occurred over the ensuing 3:03. With 3:08 left until halftime, a basket by Glover put Iona up 30-29, and the Red Foxes never tied or took the lead again.
Iona took a 35-33 halftime lead. The Gaels starting the second half on a 14-3 surge to run its lead to 13 at the 15:38 mark. With 6:59 to go, a three-pointer by Morton brought the Red Foxes to within 11 at 67-56. However, from there, Iona outscored Marist 20-7 until the finish.
Marist shot .443 (27-for-61) from the field, .267 (4-for-15) from three and .625 (5-for-8) from the line. Iona shot .567 (34-for-60) from the field, including a blistering .690 (20-for-29) clip in the second half. Iona (25-6) moves onto the semifinal round, and will face fourth-seeded Fairfield on Sunday.
Marist ended its season at 14-18. The Red Foxes closed the season by winning seven of their last 10 games.
