By Shane Dennehy

There is always something in the air when Iona and Quinnipiac lock horns and face off against each other. Iona broke Quinnipiac’s heart last year when they defeated the Bobcats to win the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference title and earn a bid to the NCAA tournament. Quinnipiac has not said that they want to face Iona until now.

“Yes off course, we want [Iona] at Times Union Center,” Quinnipiac guard Edel Thornton said about wanting to play Iona.

The top seeded Quinnipiac Bobcats will play the fifth seeded Iona Gaels in a rematch of the 2016 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference championship game. Iona came out on top in that matchup against Quinnipiac who was without its senior captain Maria Napolitano.

Iona and Quinnipiac has grown into a fierce rivalry over the past couple of seasons. Quinnipiac won both regular season games last season, but ultimately fell short in the MAAC championship game.

Quinnipiac and Iona split the two regular season games this season, with both teams winning their home games.

The Iona Gaels will come into this matchup with two first-team All-MAAC selections, while Quinnipiac has no first-teamers. The two players who made it for Iona were Alexis Lewis and Marina Lizarazu.

Lizarazu and Lewis had dominating performances in the first game this season between Iona and Quinnipiac. This game was at Iona’s home court and they would come out on top with a 58-44 win. Lewis had a double-double halfway through the second quarter, going on to finish with 22 points and 15 rebounds. Lizarazu would dominate all game long finishing with 24 points.

The second matchup was much different for Quinnipiac. Quinnipiac would pick up a 53-45 win at home. Alexis Lewis finished with 19 points and 14 rebounds but the most surprising performance was that of Marina Lizarazu.

Quinnipiac changed up their defensive game plan and it worked as Lizarazu only managed to score four points. Adily Martucci was the player for Quinnipiac who drew the tough assignment of trying to guard Lizarazu.

Aryn McClure has become a defensive rock in the back for Quinnipiac whether it is rebounding or blocking shots. She also runs Quinnipiac’s most important offensive set near the end of the game, isolation. She will be looking to either be fouled or pass the ball out to an open teammate like the one she did against Canisius when she found an open Carly Fabbri for three.

“Shoot the ball well, defend, that’s our identity as a team and execute scout,” McClure said.

That is the game plan for the Bobcats: shoot and defend. Defense will be the most important part for the Bobcats, as they will be facing two of the premier scorers in the MAAC in Alexis Lewis and Marina Lizarazu.

The key to Quinnipiac beating Iona to move onto the championship game on Monday night is containing Marina Lizarazu. She may have had a tough game against Quinnipiac the second time around but you cannot guarantee that that will be the case again.

“She is a great player. Were just going to do a great individual defensive effort but have great team defense. She is so dangerous because she sets her teammates up so well and then what she can do a lone off the dribble and shooting it,” Quinnipiac head coach Tricia Fabbri said about Lizarazu.

Quinnipiac will be confident in their ability to slow down Lizarazu because they know they have one of the best defensive players in Adily Martucci.

Alexis Lewis will get her points and rebounds regardless of the outcome of the game. The focus for Iona has to be to get Lizarazu into the paint because once she penetrates a team’s defense she can find them from anywhere inside the paint.

“Yes I do [proud myself on getting rebounds]. That is one of the things I look to, to get me going in the game. It gets me going, to get my game going,” Alexis Lewis said.

Iona head coach Billi Godsey wants her team to just focus on themselves.

“We have to lock in defensively and we have to focus on ourselves. None of those [previous] games matter,” Godsey said.

Iona likes to have Lizarazu drive the lane and pass the ball out to an open shooter, who is usually Alexis Lewis.

“I just try to go every game and help my teammates with whatever I have to do. Sometimes I have to look for them more and sometimes I have to score,” Marina Lizarazu said.

Another secret weapon for Iona is senior center Karynda DuPree who is a force in the middle. She has one of the things that you cannot teach and that is size. She stands at 6-feet 4-inches tall. She was second in the MAAC in blocks per game with 1.7.

For DuPree to have the biggest impact on the game, she has to stay out of foul trouble. She picked up four fouls in the first and five in the second, which meant she fouled out.

The winner of this game will advance to the MAAC championship game at 5 p.m. on Monday night against the winner of the two seeded Rider Broncs and the third seeded Fairfield Stags.

Ryan Chichester and Bryan Schwartz preview the match up from the Times Union Center.