FAIRFIELD, CONN. - The Monmouth University men's basketball team fell 74-57 at Sacred Heart on Thursday night, in Northeast Conference action. The loss ends MU's four-game win streak and drops the Hawks to 7-9 overall and 2-2 in the NEC. SHU improves to 8-8 and 4-1 in league action.

Monmouth opened the game by scoring the first five points and held a 15-6 advantage with 12:44 left after Marques Alston (Neptune, N.J./Neptune) and Whitney Coleman (Salem, Conn./St. Thomas More) connected on back-to-back three's from the top of the key.

Sacred Heart responded with a 24-3 run, as the Hawks were held without a field goal for 9:09 of action. The Pioneers snared their largest lead of the opening half, 30-18, with 1:22 showing on the clock, when Luke Granato drained his second trifecta of the first half. Jhamar Youngblood (Newark, N.J./St. Patrick's) pulled MU within single-digits with :59 ticks left, as the freshman connected on a three-pointer from the wing, making the score 30-21 at the intermission.

Youngblood's basket to open the second half made the score 30-23, before Drew Shubik and Luke Granato combined to hit five three-pointers over the next five minutes to snare a 49-33 lead with 14:18 left. Trailing by 19, 58-39, the Hawks scored eight of the next 10 points posted to trim the lead to 60-47 with 5:31 showing. Granato's traditional three-point play stopped the Monmouth spurt, while Jarrid Frye's dunk with 4:40 left gave the Pioneers a 65-49 advantage.

Monmouth pulled to within 12, 67-55, with 2:43 left, but SHU, which hit six second-half three-pointers, rattled off a 7-2 run to end the game, to claim the 74-57 win.

Monmouth had three players score in double-figures, led by Dejan Delic (Belgrade, Serbia-Montenegro) and Youngblood, who netted 14 points each. Alston added 13 points, while Coleman dropped in nine.

SHU was paced by Granato's 22 points on five trifectas, while Shubik and Frye added 16 and 12 points, respectively.

The Pioneers dominated the glass, holding a 44-25 advantage, which included 14 offensive boards, leading to 16 second chance points.