BYU 78, Iona 72: Noah Hartsock scored 23 points and BYU erased a 25-point deficit to defeat Iona in the NCAA tournament’s First Four.

The Cougars (26-8) fought to chip away at the significant deficit, ending the first half on a 16-6 run to trail at halftime 55-40. In the final 20 minutes, BYU stormed to within a point on the strength of a 17-0 run as the Gaels (25-8) missed 11 consecutive shots and went more than nine minutes without a single point.

With 2:36 to play, a 3-pointer from Hartsock gave the Cougars their first lead as Iona looked out of gas and proved to be out of answers.

The win sets up a matchup with No. 3 seed Marquette in the West Region for BYU, which is making its 27th NCAA tournament appearance. The Cougars are 2-2 against Marquette all-time, though the two schools haven’t faced off in 45 years.

Brandon Davies pitched in a double-double performance for the Cougars, with 18 points and 15 rebounds, and Damarcus Harrison added 12 points. Scott Machado, the nation’s assist leader, had 10 helpers in the game and also added 15 points for the Gaels. But while his nine first half assists came without a single turnover, he gave the ball up five times in the second half.

Game Notebook: Iona is 31-3 under head coach Tim Cluess when scoring at least 80 points but failed to reach that plateau in this one … BYU has won at least one NCAA tournament game in each of the last three seasons … Technically, the loss means Iona is still winless in the NCAA tournament, though the Gaels were forced to vacate both a win and a loss in 1980 due to NCAA violations