Monmouth (10-5, 10-4) vs. Iona (6-5, 4-3)
Hynes Athletics Center, New Rochelle, New York; Friday, 7 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: Two senior guards will be on display as Deion Hammond and Monmouth will take on Isaiah Ross and Iona. Hammond has scored 22 percent of the team’s points this season and is averaging 13.2 over his last five games. Ross is averaging 20.2 points over the last five games.
VETERAN PRESENCE: Senior leadership has been on display for both of these teams. Ross, Asante Gist and Dylan van Eyck have combined to score 50 percent of Iona’s points this season. For Monmouth, Hammond, George Papas, Melik Martin and Marcus McClary have combined to account for 62 percent of all Monmouth scoring.DOMINANT DEION: Hammond has connected on 34.1 percent of the 85 3-pointers he’s attempted and has made 8 of 29 over his last five games. He’s also converted 72.7 percent of his foul shots this season.
WINNING WHEN: The Gaels are 5-0 when they turn the ball over 13 times or fewer and 1-5 when they exceed 13 turnovers. The Hawks are 5-0 when at least four of their players score in double-figures and 5-5 on the year otherwise.
ACCOUNTING FOR ASSISTS: The Hawks have recently created buckets via assists more often than the Gaels. Iona has an assist on 43 of 75 field goals (57.3 percent) over its past three games while Monmouth has assists on 46 of 71 field goals (64.8 percent) during its past three games.
DID YOU KNOW: Both Monmouth and Iona are ranked atop the MAAC when it comes to scoring. The Hawks are ranked first in the conference with 77.9 points per game while the Gaels are second at 72 per game.
___
For more AP college basketball coverage: https://apnews.com/Collegebasketball and http://twitter.com/AP_Top25
___
This was generated by Automated Insights, http://www.automatedinsights.com/ap, using data from STATS LLC, https://www.stats.com
Copyright © 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.
