The Iona Gaels and Manhattan Jaspers meet up in the MAAC Men's Championship tonight for the right to go to the NCAA Tournament. The game is scheduled for a 9:00 p.m. start time and it will be televised nationally on ESPN2. Currently the College Basketball Betting Odds for the game have Iona favored to win a close contest.
Iona comes into tonight's finals appearance winners of 13 of the last 14 games overall. The Gaels have been a very solid team all season, finishing the conference slate with a 17-3 mark to finish 26-7 overall on the season. The Gaels are a very efficient team offensively, averaging almost 80 points per game and shooting 47 percent for the year. They also share the basketball well, ranking 11th-best in the country at 16.5 assists per game.
The defense hasn't been great though. Iona surrenders almost 73 points per game to opponents this season, which ranks 313th in the country. Tonight they take on a Manhattan team that doesn't play the same style of pace and scores 10 points per game less than the Gaels.
Iona has four players averaging double digits on the season, led by A.J. English at 20.2 points and David Laury at 19.5 points and 9.4 rebounds per game. The talent is clearly there for Iona and if they can pick up a win in this game, do they have what it takes to upset a team in the NCAA Tournament?
Manhattan does have some tournament experience and they have three guys averaging double digits. Emmy Andujar is the leading scorer at 16.5 points and 7.5 rebounds per game while Ashton Pankey scores better than 13 points and hauls in 6.5 rebounds per game as well. The duo will have to be big on both ends of the floor in this game tonight.
These two squads met only once this season with Iona picking up a 70-67 win back in February. The Gaels shot better than 52 percent in that game, but took 17 fewer shots than Manhattan did. Both English and Schadaric Casimir had 22 points for Iona in the win, Endujar and Pankey combined to score 33.
This one should be close, as the oddsmakers believe, but Iona is just the better overall team.
Free Pick: Iona 71, Manhattan 65
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