By Jonah Bronstein
ALBANY — ALBANY -- The Niagara Purple Eagles exercised their seniority Saturday night.
Playing an on-the-rise Iona squad of freshmen, sophomores and one big junior, Niagara, the most senior-reliant team in the MAAC tournament field, pulled off the only upset of the quarterfinal round, coming out on top in what coach Joe Mihalich called a "hard-fought, grind it out, every minute, every second," game in front of a scattered crowd of 4,413 at Times Union Center.
Tyrone Lewis and Bilal Benn both had double-doubles, and along with fellow seniors Rob Garrison and Demetrius Williamson, made hustle plays and a whole lot of free throws as the Purple Eagles avenged a regular season sweep with a 68-64 victory that wasn't wrapped up until well after midnight.
"We're playing for the rest of our lives," said Benn, who had 16 points and 11 rebounds. "These are some of our last games. They've got two years, three years left. At the end of the game, they might be saying, 'We got next year.' We sayin' 'There is no next year.'"
No longer concerned with the disappointing regular season that gave them a lowly No. 6 seed in the conference tournament, the Purple Eagles (18-14) will now meet No. 2 seed Fairfield in the semifinals at 6:30 p.m. today. It's a rematch of last Sunday's regular season finale, won in overtime by the Stags, who proved to be too much for Canisius in the quarterfinals.
Lewis scored nine of his game-high 21 points in the last two minutes, and despite being the only sub-6-footer on the floor, exploded for 10 rebounds and three blocked shots. His 3-pointer with 1:45 left -- created by Garrison chasing after his own missed runner and kicking the ball out to Lewis -- gave Niagara a 56-54 lead that would prevail down the stretch.
Niagara's final 12 points all came from the foul line. After missing more than half of their free throws in the loss at Fairfield, the Purple Eagles shot 87 percent Saturday, making twice as many foul shots (33) as field goals (16).
"That's something we worked on in practice," said Lewis, who went 9 for 9 from the line, as did Garrison. "We do this drill where if we don't make 70 percent, we run 17s."
"We had a practice this week where we did a whole lot of running," Benn chimed in.
Lewis the coaches were chiding Benn during the morning walk-through for not taking open outside shots, and his response was "I'm going to take it to the basket every time."
Attacking the basket didn't just net the Purple Eagles a 15-point free throw advantage, but put the one player they couldn't match up with, Iona center Alejo Rodriguez, in foul trouble. The junior center played only 18 minutes, but still managed 12 points and 10 rebounds.
"They're an experienced team," Iona coach Kevin Willard said. "They were picked second in the conference for a reason. I think they're playing the way everyone expected them to play at the beginning of the year. Joe has done a great job of holding this team together through injuries and a little mid-year slump."
The Gaels (21-10) were led by their sophomore point guard and second-team all-conference performer Scott Machado, who had 17 points, five assists and three steals.
When the game was slipping away early in the second half, Benn put the Purple Eagles on his back, stringing together a step-back jumper, a steal, and a tip-in that brought Niagara within 40-39 at the 12-minute mark.
Lewis then took over, getting his own steal and knifing down court for a quick bucket that put Niagara up 43-42 at the midway point of the second half. A few minutes later, Lewis converted a 3-point play on the baseline to push Niagara's lead to 48-44 inside of eight minutes.
Iona responded with a 7-0 run to go back ahead but Garrison tied the game at 51 with five minutes to play when he was fouled shooting a 3 and sank all three free throws.
Garrison finished with 11 points and four rebounds. Williamson came off the bench to score score seven points and grab five rebounds. Junior point guard Anthony Nelson had an off night, netting only five points and one assist while turning the ball over four times and missing half of his six free throws.
Nelson was the only Niagara player to miss from the line until Benn bricked both of his shots with 12.2 seconds left. Iona freshman Kyle Smyth came back with a quick 3 that got Iona within 66-64, but Lewis sealed the game with two free throws.
"Our seniors know how to win," Mihalich said. "Our seniors have been here before."
Contact reporter Jonah Bronstein at 282-2311, ext. 2258.
