College basketball: Three takeaways from Iona's 84-62 win over Saint Louis

NEW ROCHELLE - Even after decades of coaching experience, Iona head coach Rick Pitino still gets surprised.

Despite routing Niagara and Canisius to open MAAC play, he wasn't truly satisfied and sent Iona's newly-minted director of basketball operations, Steve Masiello, to relay the message after Sunday's game.

On Tuesday night, Pitino was there to address the media himself and he couldn't contain his elation following the Gaels' 84-62 victory over a Saint Louis team that had already defeated the likes of Memphis and Providence, and gave Auburn a late-game scare on the road.

"I've been shocked before, but I'm blown away by this tonight," Pitino said. "Blown away. We were underdogs in our own building — this building — where post-COVID, I haven't lost. It's a tough place to play. The crowds have been great. The whole university is working to make this place something special."

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Saint Louis entered the contest as the No. 40-ranked team in Division I men's college basketball, according to KenPom. It is Iona's highest-ranked win at home since outlasting No. 39 Richmond in double-overtime on Nov. 18, 2010. The Spiders eventually reached the Sweet 16 as a 12-seed later that season.

The Billikens never looked comfortable throughout the night, especially once the Gaels used a massive 21-5 run midway through the first half to take the lead for good.

Daniss Jenkins led the Gaels with 21 points, four rebounds, five assists, three steals and two blocks. Walter Clayton Jr. added 20 points, 12 boards, six assists and a block. Nelly Junior Joseph provided 16 points, five rebounds and two blocks. Osborn Shema added nine points, 10 rebounds, three assists, a steal and four blocks.

Here are three takeaways from the Gaels' win:

Iona's defense delivered

It wouldn't be a Pitino-coached team without a major emphasis on defense and his trademark press.

The Gaels left Saint Louis disoriented all throughout the night, and their effort on defense set the tone for other areas of the game. The Billikens entered Tuesday ranked 13th in offensive efficiency throughout Division I hoops, according to KenPom.

"Offense wasn't the key, we were told to play with confidence, but we needed to stop them and that's what we did," Jenkins said. "We tried to take away all their strong, key points that we needed to take away."

Saint Louis amassed a season-high 17 turnovers. It shot just 26-of-68 (30.9%) overall and an even worse 5-of-19 (26.3%) from long range.

Saint Louis junior Yuri Collins entered the game averaging 11.6 points and an NCAA-best 11.9 assists per game. However, the standout point guard never got into a groove. He didn't hit his first basket until the under-four minute mark in the first half. Collins finished with 14 points, four assists and five turnovers.

"You can't let him have both, he can't have assists and points," Jenkins said. "You just gotta take away something. If he beats us with scoring, then so be it. He's a great player, we just can't let him do both, and we knew Berrick was gonna do a great job, and we knew we had to contain the other four players."

Berrick JeanLouis was tasked with guarding him, but the press and overall team defense gave Collins and the Billikens fits.

"We pressed the whole game and it never shows the fatigue, but we wanted to deny him," Pitino said. "You gotta extend a lot of energy. I kept getting Parker (Weiss) in there to give Berrick 30-second blows, and he extended a lot of energy in that game and that helped us a lot.

"...Fatigue makes all players not play their best game. I've been doing this now for 40-plus years. If you don't let them beat your press, fatigue is an element, and it was a big element."

Gaels' reserve big men step up

Trailing early and with standout big man Nelly Junior Joseph in first-half foul trouble, it looked like the Gaels would have a problem.

While the backcourt efforts of Jenkins and Clayton continue to impress, the frontcourt held firm, with most of the game-changing run occurring while Junior Joseph was out with foul trouble.

Freshman Silas Sunday provided quality minutes off the bench to help alleviate the frontcourt pressure in a needed pinch.

"I was shocked that i put him in," Pitino said of Sunday. "Second of all, I was shocked he played so well."

Osborn Shema continued to thrive in another starting role, while Quinn Slazinski remains out with a bone bruise. Shema played a career-high 36 minutes and was productive on both ends all throughout, netting a plus-minus rating of +24.

"This is the Os I love to see, the Os we know he can play like every single night," Jenkins said. "He's been getting better each and every game, so we're just going to keep challenging and pushing him to be better."

Shema tallied nine points, 10 boards, three assists, one steal and four blocks.

"He was really, really active and just played terrific," Pitino said of Shema. "We lost a leading scorer and rebounder (in Slazinski), and he's going to be out a while. This is great for Osborn and Michael Jefferson, because thye get a chance now to play all these minutes and when he comes back, our bench will be that much stronger."

Building block for the road

Iona has six upcoming games this month and none of them will be at home. The Gaels won't return home until a Jan. 1 showdown with Saint Peter's.

While this was a major hurdle, one that the Gaels cleared in impressive fashion, there won't be many breaks in their schedule, especially after playing a spaced-out November slate that featured just four games.

The Gaels will play St. Bonaventure on Sunday at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, as part of the Hall of Fame Invitational. They'll follow that up with a Dec. 13 neutral-site game against Princeton at Kean University, followed by a road game at New Mexico on Dec. 18.

They will finish out the month at the Diamond Head Classic in Hawaii, an eight-team tournament that runs from Dec. 22-25.

"I feel like we saw what we were capable of doing on defense," Clayton said. "Coach (Pitino) and Coach (Masiello) came in here the other day, talking about our defense, so that was a big emphasis. Offense is going to come from defense, so this was a big step for us defensively. I feel like defense travels, so when we go to a game, that's going to travel with us. Offense doesn't always travel, so I feel like we took a big step forward tonight."

Follow Eugene Rapay on Twitter at @erapay5 and on Instagram at @byeugenerapay

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: College basketball: Three takeaways from Iona's win over Saint Louis