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Corey Brown goes up for a layup against Iona's EJ Crawford during the second half of the Griffs first round loss to the Gaels in Atlantic City, N.J.
Stockton Photo, Inc.
60
Canisius CAN 12-20
70
Winner Iona ION 12-16
Canisius CAN
12-20
60
Final
70
Iona ION
12-16
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
Canisius CAN 32 28 60
Iona ION 36 34 70

Game Recap: Men's Basketball |

Men’s Basketball Season Ends With Loss to Iona

Game Recap
Iona had three players in double-figures, led by senior E.J. Crawford, who scored a game-high 25, and the seventh-seeded Gaels made 25-of-27 shots from the free-throw line to earn a 70-60 win over Canisius Tuesday night in the opening round of the 2020 Hercules Tires MAAC Men's Basketball Championship at Boardwalk Hall in Athletic City, N.J.
 
With the win, the Gaels (12-16) advance to the quarterfinal round where they will play No. 2 seed Saint Peter's Wednesday night at 9:30 p.m., while the Golden Griffins' season comes to an close with the loss. Canisius ended the year with a 12-20 overall record.
 
For Canisius, senior Corey Brown scored a season-high 16 points to go with nine rebounds and three assists, while fellow senior Malik Johnson finished his career in Blue and Gold with 13 points, six assists, four rebounds and two steals. Freshman Armon Harried added 12 points, three rebounds and two assists to the losing effort for Canisius, which ended the night shooting 35.5 percent from the field, 26.3 percent from 3-point land and 50 percent (11-for-22) from the free-throw line.
 
A 7-0 run by Canisius in the opening moments of the game put the Blue and Gold up 9-4 with 14:49 left to play in the opening stanza. In that run, Harried scored five of the Griffs' seven points, which forced Iona to take a 30-second timeout. From there, there were seven ties and seven lead changes before the Gaels scored the final five points of the opening stanza, capped by a 3-point field goal by forward Tujuan Agee with four seconds left before intermission.
 
A jumper by Agee with 17:28 left in the game pushed Iona's lead to 41-36, but Canisius answered with a 7-2 run over the next 2:15 to knot the game at 43-43 with 14:27 remaining. That would be as close as Canisius would get the rest of the way, however, as Iona scored the game's next six points to take a 49-43 lead with 10:24 left on the clock. Iona held a two-possession lead until Harried knocked down a jumper with 4:53 left to play that made the score 56-53 in favor of the Gaels, but a traditional three-point play by Isaiah Washington and four-straight free-throw makes by Iona essentially ended the evening for the Blue and Gold.
 
Crawford went 7-for-12 from the field and a perfect 10-for-10 from the free-throw line in the win for Iona, while Washington added 24 points and six rebounds to the winning effort. For the game, Iona shot 44.4 percent from the floor and 31.3 percent from 3-point land while knocking down 92.6 percent of its free-throw attempts.
 
Head Coach Reggie Witherspoon's Postgame Comments
"This was a hard-fought game, which we expected it to be. Give Iona credit, they're a veteran team and they took advantage of their chances at the free-throw line. We certainly had our chances, we took 17 more shots than they did. We had our opportunities. I thought we were good with the basketball by limiting our turnovers, which was a big part of what we had game-planned. We were good enough on the glass to get one more rebound than they did. And we held them to just five offensive rebounds."
 
"Obviously, the difference was at the free-throw line. We had hoped to do a better job on E.J. Crawford. He did a great job tonight. He was phenomenal. I thought Isaiah Washington was really good as well."
 
"I think the future looks good. We had a lot of injuries this year. We had some freshmen that played a lot of minutes for us this year. I think those kids got better during the year. I think as we went through the season, the challenge is to get guys seasoned enough to be ready to play on this stage. I think our guys got a lot better as the season went on. I think we have a really good nucleus of guys to work with, and while we're just ending this year, I'm already looking forward to next year."  
 
Game Notes
• Canisius and Iona have now met in the MAAC Tournament nine times, with Iona having earned six wins in those nine contests.
• This marks the first time Canisius failed to reach the quarterfinal round of the MAAC Tournament since 2012.
• Five Canisius players made their MAAC Tournament debut on Tuesday, including Harried and fellow freshman Jacco Fritz, who both started the game for the Blue and Gold.
• Brown's 16 points marked the fifth time this season, and the 13th time in his career where he scored in double-figures.
• Johnson ended this career as a Griff having played in in 131 games, which ties him for the program record with former Griff Josiah Heath.
• Johnson's six assists in the game gave him five-or more assists in a game 73 times in his career. He graduates from the program as the school's all-time career leader in assists with 644.  

For complete coverage of Canisius men's basketball, please follow the Griffs on social media at @Griffs_MBB on Twitter and Instagram.
 
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