ALBANY, N.Y. - The Siena Saints saw their season come to an end early on Thursday morning, as the seventh-seeded Saints fell to the tenth-seeded Iona Gaels by a final score of 75-64 in the First Round of the MAAC Basketball Championship at the Times Union Center. Redshirt senior Aaliyah Jones led the Green and Gold with an 18-point performance.

Jones led the Saints (12-18) in points, rebounds with five, and steals with six. Redshirt senior Joella Gibson also filled the stat sheet with 11 points, a team-high three assists, and five steals. Senior Deja Rawls tossed in 17 points behind four three-pointers.

Iona (5-25) was led with a 26-point performance from Juana Camilion, as she fell a rebound short of a double-double. Morgan Rachu and Shyan Mwai each had 19 points for the Gaels, as Rachu shot 5-for-7 from behind the three-point arc.

The Saints jumped out to an early 10-5 lead in the first quarter, as Gibson and Jones were early contributors. Siena kept up the offense, as Gibson capped the quarter with a fast break layup to give the Green and Gold a 21-16 lead after the first 10 minutes. Siena would force multiple turnovers in the quarter, leading to the lead.

The Gaels would swing the momentum in the second quarter right after the Saints took their largest lead of the game, a 10-point lead with 7:11 remaining in the second thanks to a Rawls layup. From that point, Iona proceeded to put up a 20-2 run to end the quarter, ending up with a 36-28 lead at the half.

Iona would hold their lead throughout the second half, with the third quarter bouncing back and forth between runs for each side. It would be Siena with some scoring at the end of the quarter, trailing by only four points heading into the fourth. Jones would hit a jumper just outside the paint as time expired to cut the deficit.

That is as close as Siena would get, as an early hole in the fourth quarter put the Green and Gold down by as many as 14 with 6:05 remaining. But, Rawls would find her groove from behind the arc and the Saints would cut the lead to five with 2:35 to go. A three-pointer by junior Sabrina Piper would be the last field goal for Siena with 46 seconds to go, as Iona opened their lead back up down the stretch.

Siena outscored the Gaels in the paint 34-26, and scored 28 points off turnovers. The Saints also scored 13 points on the fast break to Iona's five points.