NEW ROCHELLE, NY – Monmouth University Men's Basketball (16-9, 8-6 MAAC) rallied late to cut into the Iona College (20-5, 12-2 MAAC) lead, coming up just short in a 70-62 defeat Sunday in New Rochelle. Jarvis Vaughan led Monmouth with 11 points, his first career double-figure contest.
 
Trailing by as many as 18 in the second half, Monmouth began its comeback. A 13-2 run that included both a three and a three-point play from Vaughan got MU within five. The cap to that run came when Myles Ruth got a steal at half court, got to the rim and scored, plus one to make it 63-58. MU was within five again when Tahron Allen netted a runner, but Elijah Joiner's three made it an eight-point game again, the eventual final margin in a 70-62 contest.

MU answered an early five-point Iona lead with four straight made foul shots to cut it to one. The Gaels used an 11-1 stretch to lead by 10, and led by as many as 14 in the period, but Jarvis Vaughan's corner triple at 3:01 cut the deficit down to seven. Iona took a 12-point edge into the locker room, 42-30.
 
NOTES AND QUOTES
 
"I want to give Iona all the credit. They are coming off two losses so I knew they were going to play like themselves today and their pressure bothered us a lot today.  I was really proud of how hard we fought. What happened late was our defense picked up like it was supposed to be from the beginning. I'm big on pressuring everybody. Now our guys got after it late and now maybe the next time we see someone we will believe that our pressure can make people not play like themselves too." – Head Coach King Rice
 
-Jarvis Vaughan posted his first career double-figure game, finishing with 11 points and a career-best two made triples.
-Nikkei Rutty collected nine rebounds, his 11^th game this season with eight or more boards.
-George Papas led MU with 10 rebounds, his third double-digit rebounding contest of his career and first since December 5 at Canisius.
-Jarvis Vaughan's first-half three pointer was the second made three of his career and first since January 20 at Fairfield.
-This marks the sixth MAAC team that Monmouth has completed its regular season series with.
-Sam Chaput made his second straight start and fourth of the season.

NUMBERS CRUNCH
-Monmouth topped Iona on the boards, 43-31.
-Each team shot 39% from the field.s  s
-Monmouth was better in the paint, 32-18.
-MU was better off the bench, 24-20.
-Elijah Joiner led the Gaels with 15 points.

UP NEXT
-Monmouth is set to host Rider on Friday night, with tip set for 7:00 p.m.