Courtesy of MonmouthHawks.com
WEST LONG BRANCH, NJ – Monmouth outscored Manhattan by a 12-point margin in the second half and got a 27-point night from Justin Robinson (Lake Katrine, NY/Kingston) to top Manhattan and win its fifth straight Friday night, 82-71 in front of 3,495 at the OceanFirst Bank Center.
Down one at the break, Monmouth used a 10-0 run out of the locker room to build a 43-34 lead. The advantage stayed between five and nine points for MU until the 10:12 mark, where an Aaron Walker layup cut it to three. Zane Waterman’s triple at 4:50 cut it down to two later in the period, but Monmouth made its free throws down the stretch to extend the lead to nine and eventually 11, the final margin.
A back-and-forth first half saw nine lead changes and three ties, with Manhattan taking a lead of as many as seven and Monmouth going up by six at one point. The Hawks used a 17-4 run to erase the deficit, and a late long ball from Waterman gave the Jaspers a slim lead at the intermission.
NOTES AND QUOTES
“It was a tough college basketball game but you have to give Manhattan a lot of credit. They made us have to dig really deep to get this win tonight.” –head coach King Rice
“Our team fights to get wins. We keep doing it. We win ugly, we win pretty, and I got all the love in the world for these kids.” –Coach Rice
“I think we did a good job, like Coach Rice said, to keep fighting and find a way to get a win.” –senior guard Josh James
-Robinson worked into double digits for the 19th time in 20 games this season, and scored 20+ points for the 32nd time in his career.
-The Hawks forced eight first-half turnovers from the Jaspers and 18 overall.
–Chris Brady added eight or more rebounds for the third game in a row, finishing with nine.
-For the second time in three games, Austin Tilghman grabbed at least six rebounds.
-Monmouth has now won two in a row against Manhattan, both coming in West Long Branch.
–Micah Seaborn has missed just two free throws over the last 10 games, including a perfect 10-10 from the stripe tonight.
-MU is now 12-4 when turning it over less than their opponent.
NUMBERS CRUNCH
-The Hawks are 14-4 when netting five or more threes.
-Monmouth is a perfect 12-0 when outshooting their opponent.
-Josh James netted a season-high eight points in the first half, and finished with his first double digit effort of the year at 13 points.
-MU netted 49 second-half points.
-The Hawks scored 80+ points for the 12th time in 20 games this year, and are 11-1 when netting 80 or more this year.
-MU netted 21 points off turnovers and allowed just 11.
-The Hawks outran Manhattan on the fast break 17-4.
-Monmouth shot 44 free throws, a season-high and the most since a home win over Quinnipiac last January.
UP NEXT
-Monmouth is back in action at the OceanFirst Bank Center on Sunday, January 22 at 2:00 p.m. against Fairfield on ESPN3.
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