Iona Wins the 2021 MAAC Men’s Basketball Championship
Atlantic City, N.J. (March 13, 2021) – No. 9 Iona defeated No. 7 Fairfield 60-51 in the 2021 Hercules Tires MAAC Men’s Basketball Championship Game. The win marks the league leading 13
th MAAC title for Iona and the first ever for a No. 9 seed in the MAAC Men’s Tournament. The Gaels will represent the MAAC in the NCAA Tournament as the automatic qualifier.
No 7. Fairfield (10-17) – 51 | No. 9 Iona (12-5) 60
2021 Hercules Tires MAAC Men’s Basketball Championship – Championship
Jim Whelan Boardwalk Hall | Atlantic City, NJ
Key Moments:
- With a double-double of 12 points and 11 rebounds, MAAC Rookie of the Year Nelly Junior Joseph was your Tropicana Play of the Game. Nelly also added 3 blocks and 2 assists to his impressive stat line.
- The Gaels never trailed throughout the contest, shooting 44% in the contest.
- Joseph was joined in double figures by teammates Asante Gist with a game high of 18 points and Isaiah Ross with 13 points.
- Wojcik led all Fairfield scorers with 13 points while Taj Benning and Caleb Green also reached double figures with 11 and 10 points respectively.
- The Stags cut the Gaels lead to 32-28 in the second half but Iona answered with an 11-3 run that inflated the lead back to 12 points which was where the Gaels kept the edge for most of the game. The Stags were able to cut the deficit to under 10 points on a couple of occasions but Iona managed to find a way to raise the lead again.
Notables:
- This is the second time a champion was crowned that went 4-0 in the tournament. The other occasion was Siena in 2002.
- Gist was named the MVP of the tournament and was joined by teammates Ross and Berrick Jeanlouis.
- Coach Pitino is the fifth first year head coach to win a championship in his first year. The others were Mitch Bonoguoro (1986), Fran Fraschilla (1993), Skip Prosser (1994), and Rob Lanier (2002).
- This was the 19th MAAC Finals appearance for Iona, the most in MAAC history. They are now 13-6 all time.
- Fairfield’s Jake Wojcik and Taj Benning were named to the All-Championship team for their impressive performances throughout the tournament.
Up Next:
The NCAA Men’s Basketball Selection Show will be held tomorrow at 6 p.m. The first round of the NCAA Tournament will take place on Friday, March 19 and Saturday, March 20.
2021 Men’s Basketball All-Championship Team
Raheem Solomon (Niagara)
KC Ndefo (Saint Peter's)
Jake Wojcik (Fairfield)
Taj Benning (Fairfield)
Berrick Jeanlouis (Iona)
Isaiah Ross (Iona)
Asante Gist (MVP, Iona)
About the 2021 Hercules Tires MAAC Men’s and Women’s Basketball Championships:
The MAAC Men’s and Women’s Basketball Championships return to New Jersey on March 8-13, 2021 at Jim Whelan Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City. To stay up to date on MAAC basketball, visit
http://maacsports.com/basketball and follow
@MAACHoops on Twitter.
About Time Out for Black Lives
Time Out for Black Lives aims to inspire and educate youth, athletes, families and fans. The initiative has an interactive website where coaches and student-athletes from MAAC basketball programs contribute their time and resources to read children’s books in entertaining videos, all focusing on Black culture, history, music and myths. The program comes as part of the MAAC’s
United for Justice campaign that was announced over the summer. For more information, visit
timeoutforblacklives.com.
About the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference:
With 11 institutions strongly bound by the sound principles of quality and integrity in academics and excellence in athletics, the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) celebrates its 40th year of competition during the 2020-21 academic year. Current conference members include: Canisius College, Fairfield University, Iona College, Manhattan College, Marist College, Monmouth University, Niagara University, Quinnipiac University, Rider University, Saint Peter’s University, and Siena College.