Iona College scored the first 10 points of the game and never gave up the lead as the Canisius women's basketball team lost 85-75 to the Gaels in the Hynes Athletic Center in New Rochelle, N.Y. on Sunday afternoon. Canisius drops to 5-8 overall and 3-1 in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.

Junior Emily Weber led Canisius with a career-high 21 points and went 4-for-6 from behind the arc. Senior Kayla Hoohuli added 12 points, a career-high six assists and three steals in 37 minutes. Canisius shot 49 percent from the floor and had 20 assists on 26 made baskets but couldn't overcome 16 turnovers.  

“That early run from Iona proved to be the difference in the game,” Canisius coach Terry Zeh said. “We battled and made runs to get back into the game a number of times, but Iona showed why they are one of the top teams in the league by not letting us take the lead and taking advantage of our mistakes..”

Iona (6-7, 3-1 MAAC) scored the first 10 points of the game on their first four possessions in the opening two and a half minutes, but the Griffs were able to chip away at the deficit. Hoohuli found sophomore Laniere Coleman in transition with Coleman finishing the layup to cut the deficit to 19-17 with just over 12 minutes left. The Gaels pushed the lead back to double digits with a 10-point run to go up 37-24 before Weber drained 3-pointers on back-to-back possessions to make it a seven-point game. Iona closed the half on a 6-2 run and took a 44-34 lead into the locker room as the Gaels shot 58.6 percent in the first half and made six 3-pointers.

Canisius stayed around during the start of the second half and used a 14-5 run, including back-to-back 3-pointers from Hoohuli, to cut the deficit to 61-57 with 12:30 left. The Gaels answered with an 8-1 run to push the lead again to double digits. The Griffs made one last run and a 3-pointer from Weber cut the lead to 73-67 with 4:35 left. Iona put the game away with another 8-1 run.

Damika Martinez led Iona with 31 points, including 6-for-8 on 3-pointers. Joy Adams added 25 points and 10 rebounds. The Gaels scored 22 points off 16 Canisius turnovers and also had 16 second-chance points off 11 offensive rebounds.

Canisius returns to the Koessler Athletic Center next weekend and will host Quinnipiac on Friday. Tipoff in the KAC is set for 7 p.m.

Notes: Weber is the first Golden Griffin to score 20 points in a game this season… Iona defeated Canisius for the seventh consecutive meeting and for the sixth straight year in New Rochelle… Twenty-three of the last 26 meetings in the series have been decided by double digits… Junior Tiahana Mills extended her streak of consecutive games with a steal to 25 games, now tied with Heather Fiore for the sixth-longest streak in the program's Division I history… Canisius dropped to 64-14 all-time under Zeh when scoring 70 or more points… Hoohuli now has 25 steals in the last 12 games… Mills posted two blocks for the first time in her career.