CORPUS CHRISTI, TEXAS - The Monmouth University men's basketball team fell at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, 71-54, on Monday night at the AmericanBank Center, in Corpus Christi, Texas. The loss drops the Hawks' record to 1-4, while the Islanders improve to 2-0 on the season.
The Islanders jumped on the Hawks early, leading by as many as 25 points in the first half, and after the Blue and White trimmed the lead to 15 in the second stanza, the CC edge hovered around 20 for the remainder of the contest.
The Islanders jumped out to an 8-0 lead at the 16:15 mark, when Kevin Menifee connected on a reverse layup, and held a 15-4 cushion before MU recorded its first field goal, a dunk by
Corey Hallett at 12:05.
CC pushed the lead to 27-6 over the next three and half minutes, culminated by back-to back hoops from Cedric Smith. Monmouth cut the lead to 16 points after
Dejan Delic connected on two free throws, but the Islanders inflated the edge back to 23 at 4:48, 36-13 when Scooby Johnson hit two foul shots.
The Hawks, who connected on just seven field goals in the first half, scored their last nine points of the half, on drives by Delic and
Jhamar Youngblood, a trifecta from Delic and
Mike Shipman's drive with :02 seconds left, trimming the Islanders advantage to 40-23 at the intermission.
After Monmouth cut the lead to 45-30 with 16:37 left in the game, on a
Marques Alston jump shot, the Islanders pushed the lead to 62-36 at 6:55.
Monmouth was led once again by Delic, who connected for 20 points, behind 5-of-7 shooting from the floor and three three-pointers. Youngblood established a new season-high for the freshman, as he dropped in 16 points, 13 of which came in the second half.
CC was led by the duo of Johnson and Smith, who combined for 41 points on 17-of-20 shooting. The Islanders hit 29-of-50 from the floor (58.0%) in the contest, while forcing 20 MU turnovers.
Monmouth returns to action on Saturday, November 25, when the Hawks entertain St. Peter's in the 2006 home opener at 4 p.m., on Autism Awareness Day.
