Box Score NEW ROCHELLE, NY – Jamiyah Bethune (Union, NJ/Union [Penn State]) scored a team-high 16 points, but the Monmouth University women's basketball team fell at league-leading Iona, 68-56, Friday morning at the Hynes Athletic Center. The Hawks (7-15, 5-8 MAAC) built a 10-point lead in the third quarter, but the Gaels (15-9, 11-2 MAAC) outscored Monmouth, 34-12, over the game's final 15 minutes.

Bethune was 7-of-13 from the floor, while also adding five rebounds. Tyese Purvis (Queens, NY/Francis Lewis [Monroe C.C.]) joined Bethune in double figures with 10 points on 4-of-8 shooting. Dana Carbone (Toms River, NJ/Monsignor Donovan) scored all eight of her points in the second quarter, while Sarah Olson (Freehold, NJ/Howell [NJIT]) grabbed a team-best eight rebounds. McKinzee Barker (Bomont, WV/Clay County) dished out six assists.

Though she shot just 4-of-16 in the game, MAAC Preseason Player of the Year Joy Adams led Iona with 13 points, 24 rebounds and eight assists. Half of her 24 boards came on the offensive glass, while 25 of Iona's 51 rebounds also came off offensive caroms. Alexis Lewis scored a team-high 18 points, all in the second half, while also adding seven rebounds. Marina Lizarazu chipped in with 14 points and five assists, while Karynda DuPree contributed 10 points and six rebounds, all on the offensive glass.

“I thought our kids battled really hard today, especially in the first half,” said Monmouth Head Coach Jenny Palmateer. “In the second half, they won the battle of the boards and got a lot of second-chance points. That was their bread and butter and we just couldn't stop that.”

After the teams immediately exchanged three-pointers off the opening tip, the Hawks got four-straight points, two each from Christina Mitchell (Baltimore, MD/MATHS) and Purvis, to take a 7-3 lead. Still leading by four, 9-5, the Gaels scored six-straight points to take their first lead of the game, 11-9.  Monmouth retook the lead on a Jasmine McCall (Manalapan, NJ/Manalapan [Seton Hall]) three, before Philecia Gilmore took it back for Iona with a three of her own. Two Walker free throws tied the game at 14-14, before Lizarazu staked the Gaels to a four-point lead with a pair of free throws and a drive and dish for an Adams lay-up. Purvis got inside for a lay-up to cut the deficit to two, 18-16, after one.

Iona scored the first five points of the second quarter to extend to a 23-16 lead before Jasmine Walker (North Brunswick, NJ/North Brunswick) took a long rebound all the way to the rim for two and Carbone hit consecutive three-pointers as MU retook a 24-23 lead midway through the period with the 8-0 spurt. After Iona called timeout and drew up a play for an Adams lay-up and a 25-24 lead, Erica Balman (Marcellus, NY/Marcellus) extended a possession with a controlled tap back to Carbone, who drove and dished back to the freshman center for a lay-up and a 26-25 lead. The Hawks led for the remainder of the half, extending the advantage to as many as five, 32-27, on a short Barker jumper in the paint. A DuPree lay-up cut the Hawks' lead to 32-29 at the break.

Carbone led Monmouth with eight points, while Bethune had seven points at the break. Gilmore had nine points on three three-pointers for Iona, while Adams and DuPree added six points apiece. Adams grabbed 12 rebounds, four on the offensive glass, and dished out four assists in the first half. Monmouth's bench outscored that of Iona, 17-4.

Monmouth scored the first five points of the third quarter and 12 of the first 17 to extend to a 10-point lead, 44-34, on a Purvis three at the 5:18 mark. Bethune scored six of the 12 points. Six-straight points from Lewis, the first three from the free-throw line and the last three from behind the arc, cut the Hawks' lead to 44-40. Following 1-of-2 Walker free throws with the fire alarm sounding, Adams got inside for a putback and Lewis hit her third three of the period to tie the game at 45-45 after three.

Mitchell opened the fourth-quarter scoring with a pair of free throws to give MU a 47-45 lead. But Iona scored the next seven points and nine of the next 10 to open a 55-48 lead on Adams' three-point play at the 7:32 mark and the Gaels never trailed again. The Hawks cut the deficit to five on three occasions, the last coming at the 4:25 mark on a lay-up from Olson. But following a miss on the Hawks' offensive end, Iona milked nearly two minutes off the clock by grabbing four offensive rebounds, two each from Adams and DuPree. Lewis punctuated the possession with a long jumper at the 2:04 mark, giving Iona a 61-54 lead with just over two minutes left. Purvis converted a lay-up on the other end to again cut the deficit to five, but Iona scored the game's final seven points to account for the 68-56 final score.

For the game, the Hawks outshot Iona, 40.0 percent (22-55) to 32.0 percent (24-75) from the floor, while the Gaels took a 33.3 percent (8-24) to 27.8 percent (5-18) edge from long range and an 80.0 percent (12-15) to 63.6 percent (7-11) advantage from the free-throw line. Iona outrebounded Monmouth, 51-35, including a 25-9 advantage on the offensive glass, leading to a 16-9 edge in second-chance points. Iona also turned a 15-9 edge in turnovers into an 18-6 advantage in points off turnovers.   

The Hawks return to action Sunday, when they play host to Canisius. Tip-off from the Multipurpose Activity Center is set for 2 p.m. on ESPN3.