Heroic plays are across the MAAC

The game is the same no matter how many people are watching, and in the MAAC, fans are almost always treated to close games with late drama. The last two weekends, there have been 20 games of MAAC basketball, and not a single one was decided by more than 18 points.

Fourteen were decided by two possessions or fewer.

In the dying moments of games, heroes rise and lift their team over the top — whether it’s with an impressive defensive pla. a game-winning shot or any other wild play you can conjure. That’s the beauty of the league: any team can beat any other team on any given day. The standings are in constant flux.

Having a guy on your team that embraces the moment is something that makes everybody more comfortable and confident. When Rider went into Iona last weekend, they were trying to end a three-game losing skid, and it looked like that would continue when they trailed by 18 points in the second half.

The Broncs never gave up hope, and came all the way back to tie, and even take the lead, before Iona free throws tied the game back at 67 with about 26 seconds left. Everybody in the gym knew that Dwight Murray Jr. was going to get the basketball.

Murray had a marquee moment against Iona prior to this game as well, as he was the one who hit the shot that sent Iona out of the MAAC Tournament in the quarterfinals last year, and he was keen to add to his resume.

“All my teammates knew I was going to take that shot,” Murray said. “Even if coach was going to write it up, they would have said ‘Let D.J. go 1-4 flat’ and they all trusted me.”

Head coach Kevin Baggett wasn’t going to draw it up any different.

“My guy here always wants the big shot, and even if he misses it he’s going to want it again,” he said.

Murray rewarded his teammates’ faith with a contested step-back 3 in front of the Broncs bench to gave them a 70-67 lead with seconds remaining. When Daniss Jenkins’ desperation heave fell off the rim, Iona’s 21-game home winning streak was over, and the Gaels had lost two games of three.

Murray’s heroics earned him the nickname “Iona killer” from childhood friend and Rider co-star Mervin James. But that’s just another day in the MAAC, as we saw elsewhere in the league.

With the game tied at 57, Niagara’s Noah Thomasson, the nation’s top isolation scorer by volume, drove past St. Peter’s Isiah Dasher and hit a tough layup with about eight seconds on the clock. When Jaylen Murray’s 3-pointer didn’t…