College basketball: Three takeaways from Iona's 62-57 loss to Hofstra

After picking up a hot-shooting road win at Fairfield over the weekend, Iona came back home and lost to Hofstra in wire-to-wire fashion.

The Gaels made a last-minute push, but the Pride held off the Gaels and hung on for a 62-57 win on Wednesday night.

Iona played from behind for the entirety of the game, as offensive struggles prevented the Gaels from overtaking Hofstra. The Gaels kept the game at a manageable deficit, but the Pride seemed to have an answer for every big shot or scoring spurt that Iona was able to create.

After taking a 28-26 halftime lead, Hofstra set the tone with an early second-half run and extended its lead to 10. The Pride would never push the margin more than that, but it maintained its lead through the final buzzer. Hofstra finished the game making five of its seven final shot attempts.

Darlinstone Dubar led Hofstra with a 12-point, 10-rebound double-double, with two blocks and a steal. Jaquan Carlos added 11 points, two rebounds, seven assists and six turnovers. Bryce Washington chipped in 11 points, while Jacco Fritz had nine points, nine rebounds and three blocks to round out the winning effort.

For Iona, Wheza Panzo finished with a game-high 15 points. Jean Aranguren had 12 points on 4-of-5 shooting, with eight rebounds and four assists in his first career start.

Here are three takeaways from the game:

1. Another slow start for Iona offensively at home

Much like its previous outing at home against Marist, Iona suffered another cold-shooting night and played from behind after opening tip.

Fortunately for the Gaels, their defensive effort, combined with some Hofstra miscues, helped them keep the game within reach in the first half.

Iona didn't make any shot attempts until more than three minutes into the contest. The Gaels shot a combined 3-of-21 (14.3%) over the first 15 minutes of the game.

The Gaels got a spark late in the first half from Wheza Panzo and a few defensive plays, which helped them rumble back into the game with an 8-0 run to close the half and cut the deficit down to just two points at halftime.

They shot 6-of-10 over the final five minutes of the first half during that stretch, but the Gaels finished the first half shooting just 9-of-31 overall (29.0%), but 6-of-12 from deep, thanks to a huge boost from Panzo.

"We're a really good defensive team, and we know defense wins championships, but we're going to hang our hat on the defensive end," Hofstra coach Speedy Claxton said.

2. Iona bench outscores Gael starters

Outside of Aranguren, Iona's starters couldn't find a groove offensively.

Greg Gordon did finish 3-of-5 in his limited shot attempts, but overall, Gaels' starters went a combined 8-for-27 (29.6%)

If you take out Aranguren and Gordon's shooting splits (7-of-10), the other three Iona starters were a combined 1-of-17.

A bulk of the scoring punch came from the bench, with Panzo leading the way and providing an offensive spark. He heated up quickly from the three-point line and helped Iona settle into the game after the cold-shooting start.

"Just helping my team in any way I can," Panzo said. "I'm not worrying about being on the bench or starting, none of that matters. As soon as you get in, just continue to play hard."

Jeremiah Quigley and Dylan Saunders each added timely threes off the bench as well.

Iona's bench outscored its starting five, 32-25.

"We gotta get the game going faster," said Anderson of the offensive deficiencies. "We have to turn teams over more, get stuff off of our press. Press is better at times, but some things are not going well. I'd like to score in the 80s and 90s, and we're not holding anybody back. We're trying to go, but just not playing as free and easy.

"We didn't shoot the ball well, but that can't be the reason you lose, although Wheza shot the ball well. I want to play faster. Start of the game, we got stops, but we gotta go out in transition. We can't be the 'jogging Gaels.'"

3. Gaels' reflections on the first one-fourth of the season

Defense seems to be improving, but offensive consistency is still very much a work-in-progress.

Off the game-day court, Iona is also working on trying to bring together a more consistent effort in practice.

"We just haven't meshed yet, it's all new," Anderson said. "We gotta get over the hurdle. We have not been a good practice team and that's been my biggest pet peeve. Once we become a great practice team, we'll become a very good basketball team.

"Some days, one team is good and other days, the other team is good. It has to be competitive every day and that probably comes from the fact that some of these guys are probably from places where that wasn't the case."

Panzo and Anderson noted that the Gaels did not have productive or quality practice days leading into the game against Hofstra.

"We're still establishing rhythm," Panzo said. "Obviously, learning the press and motion offense has taken some time, but I think we're getting better every game. We just have to keep at it."

With the first one-fourth of the regular season over, Anderson also reflected on the positives.

"I like the freshmen, I like their attitude, their energy and what they've done," Anderson said. "They haven't blinked at all, they play well in close games and make plays. Jean made plays tonight, Sulan made plays. Sultan's defense has been great.

"(The whole team) are hard-workers. They're in the gym all the time, working all the time, shooting, doing extra workouts. We just haven't meshed yet. It's all new. ... They're going to put me in a home if I keep talking about how good we're going to be. We gotta get there. It's gotta happen, because right now, it's not happening if we want to win a high level."

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 62-57 loss to Hofstra