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SPRINGFIELD – Iona’s well-balanced attack managed to jump ahead in the second half and put away the top seeded Niagara Purple Eagles 79-73 in the first semifinal in the MAAC Tournament.

David Laury led Iona with 20 points and a career-high 17 rebounds. Antoine Mason led Niagara with a game-high 21 points.

“I think I’m getting the comfort level that I’ve been seeking,” Laury said. “I had it when I first came out but it didn’t come away.”

“I don’t really know why it happened but we started to get it back the whole year. These guys Momo, Sean, have had confidence in me telling me to do certain things. Sometimes I lack aggression and I just had to be aggressive.”

Iona took control late in the second half. after trading baskets with the Purple Eagles and trailing 40-39 at the break.

Jumpers from the free throw line by Sean Armand and Taaj Ridley helped Iona stay ahead but the Purple Eagles stayed in it with baskets from Mason off the window and a deep two from Juan’ya Green. Sledge’s transition layup off a Green turnover gave Iona a 60-57 lead.

Laury posted up for a basket to give Iona a 62-59 lead. From there, Niagara missed their next three shots, the last one a Green floater in the lane that couldn’t go. Momo Jones responded with a floater in the lane of his own that went down, giving Iona a 66-59 lead. The lead was their largest since being ahead 9-2 in the first half.

Sledge made a three pointer close the Iona bench to give a nine-point lead at 70-61 with 6:37 left.

Iona head coach Tim Cluess described Sledge’s three as “huge” and that Armand and Jones tell Sledge to shoot more when he’s open.

“These guys yell at him every day to shoot it more when he’s open,” Cluess said. “We give guys the freedom, if you’re open shoot the basketball. They get on him a lot to shoot in practice and I was glad to see him have the confidence and also make the three. He feels real good about himself.”

On the ensuing defensive possession, Jones drew a charge on Mason slashing from the right baseline. A pumped up Jones got up and pounded his chest to the crowd following the call.

“We got ’em,” Jones said. “I had grown up with [Mason] since I was young kid, young player. I knew he wanted to go right and I kept telling coach the whole night all he wants to go do is go right.”

“He said guard him and that was just the mindset. Make him go right, take a charge.”

Mason drew his third foul on the charge call.

“I knew if I could get that charge that he would slow down, he would stop being as aggressive as he was,” Jones said. “I think after that charge I think I really set him back. He wasn’t as aggressive as he was early on.”

Mason scored just three points for the remainder of the game.

Niagara could not find their offense from the outside, making just seven of 33 three pointers for the game. The Purple Eagles’ last three pointer came from T.J. Cline with 17:42 left to give Niagara a 47-45 lead.

“I thought we had some good looks from some guys who could make shots and we didn’t knock them down,” Niagara head coach Joe Mihalich said. “Maybe we were just a little out of rhythm or we were further away from the three-point line than our toe on the line but I thought we had a lot of times.”

The Purple Eagles were also without Tahjere McCall who suffered a knee injury in the quarterfinal game against Siena.

“There are excuses and there are facts and the fact is our starting point guard didn’t play,” Mihalich said. “He gives us 23 minutes of terrific perimeter defense. It gives Juan’ya a chance to get off the ball, for him not to do as much.”

“The team we put out on the floor wasn’t as good as the team that scored 79 points today, but there’s excuses and there’s facts and we missed him. We missed him a lot.”

Niagara struggled out of the gate early making just two of their first nine shots and Iona flexed their muscles early, running out and grabbing a 9-2 lead. However, the Purple Eagles got back into the game with baksets from Mason, Ameen Tanskley and Marvin Jordan.

Jordan’s three pointer gave Niagara their first lead at 19-16 but Armand responded with a three of his own from the corner contested by Devon White to tie it back up. Green drove the baseline to the basket, received contact from Ridley his traditional three-point play. Niagara would grab a lead as large as six thanks to a Mason jumper from the free throw line over Iona’s zone.

The Gaels responded right back with a run of their own capping it with a Laury drive in the lane with a missed layup, but Ridley trailed the play and threw down the ball one-handed to cut the lead to one.

The teams traded baskets to halftime. After Jones missed a basket through contact, T.J. Cline threw a wayward pass picked off by DaShawn Gomez and Jones fired a three to give Iona a 39-38 lead with 1:02 left. However, Green responded by driving the lane for a layup to give the Purple Eagles a 40-39 edge at halftime.

Iona came out running in the second half. Jones drove the lane and got a traditional three-point play on Ameen Tanksley, his free throw cut the lead to 43-42. Sledge went coast to coast for a layup that cut the lead to 51-50, later his drive to basket missed but Laury’s put back on an offensive rebound gave Iona a 54-53 lead with 13:58 left.

Niagara cut into the lead with free throws and a Tanksley drive to the basket to cut the lead to 70-65 with 4:28 left. Green drove to the basket to cut the lead to three with 2:57 left, but Niagara would not be able to close the gap any more.

Laury drove the lane and got a foul on Cline who yelled “no!” emphatically on the call near the baseline. The sophomore made two free throws and Iona went on to ice the game from the line.

Iona made nine of their last 10 from the free throw line to hold on to the win, making 18 of their 22 free throws for the game.

Sledge held first-team All-MAAC member Green in check, holding him to 11 points on five of 17 shooting from the field.

“We went back to what we did the first matchup and we won that game,” Jones said of guarding Green with Sledge. “We shut them out and Tavon did a great job on [Green]. We just helped him out a little bit in terms filling in the gaps here.”

“When it came down to it, Tavon did a tremendous job. All praise goes out to him. Juan’ya is a great player, getting even better, tonight Tavon had that motor in his tank tonght that he’s had all year, that he comes to practice with, that he wakes up with and tonight it helped us tremendously.”

Niagara joins the last two regular season champions in the MAAC to not make the finals of the tournament. Iona and Fairfield during the previous two seasons respectively fell in the conference semifinal game. Five of the last eight regular season champions have not advanced to the championship game.

Ryan Restivo covers the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference for Big Apple Buckets, follow him on twitter @ryanarestivo.