Iona proves more poised than Monmouth in capturing MAAC title

The Monmouth Hawks have been one of the fun stories of the college basketball season because of the antics of their bench players and numerous upsets over more notable opponents.

But none of that mattered at all to rival Iona on Monday night in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference championship game. The second-seeded Gaels won a MAAC record ninth tournament title 79-76 over the top-seeded Hawks to return to the NCAA Tournament for the second time in four years.

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Iona senior A.J. English is one of the best offensive players in the nation and he overcame a poor-shooting first half to lead the Gaels to a gritty victory with 19 points, eight of which came at the free throw line. Iona simply made fewer mistakes late in the game with the pressure on and earned the right to keep playing.

English gave his team the lead for good with 1 minute, 39 seconds left when he hit a tough turnaround jump shot with the shot clock winding down. He also made three of the Gaels 11 3 pointers.

Jordan Washington and Deyshonee Much each scored 15 points for the Gaels. Isaiah Williams finished with 17, including four 3-pointers.

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Some believe Monmouth will still get into the NCAA Tournament as an at-large team because of the strength of the schedule it has played, which included 17 total road games and wins against UCLA, Notre Dame, USC and Georgetown.

But the Hawks now must spend the rest of the week waiting for Selection Sunday and their fate to be revealed. There isn’t a lengthy history of past selection committees rewarding small conference schools with at-large bids but it has happened in the past. Iona actually earned an at-large berth to the tournament in 2012.

There is an even shorter history of small conference schools playing the kind of schedule Monmouth did this season. The Hawks have 13 road wins to their credit. So there is at least some hope that the committee will feel it must reward a small school for doing all it could schedule-wise to put itself in position for an at-large bid.

Turnovers were the Hawks’ undoing in the title game. They committed 17 of them including one on the final possession of the game when it was going for the tie. Iona turned it over 10 times.

Monmouth junior point guard Justin Robinson shot poorly in the game and made some questionable decisions. He finished with 14 points on 2-for-9 shooting.

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[Kyle Ringo is the assistant editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at kyle.ringo@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KyleRingo