BROOKLYN HEIGHTS, N.Y. - The Monmouth University men's basketball team dropped their fourth straight Northeast Conference road game as they fell 69-57 to St. Francis (N.Y.) Monday night in Brooklyn. The loss drops Monmouth's record to 7-12 overall and 2-5 in the NEC, while the Terriers improve to 5-16 and 3-6 in the league.
The Hawks held a 45-43 lead with 11:15 left in the second half following a Whitney Coleman (Salem, Conn./East Lyme) three-point field goal, but MU went scoreless over the next four and a half minutes as St. Francis (N.Y.) grabbed a 49-45 lead for good on back-to-back Allan Sheppard baskets.
Jhamar Youngblood (Newark, N.J./St. Patrick's) led the Hawks with 16 points and five assists, and Marques Alston (Neptune, N.J./Neptune) added 12 points and five rebounds. In the game Alston became the 17th Hawk in program history to score 1,000 career points, joining teammate Dejan Delic (Belgrade, Serbia, Montenegro) who tallied the plateau in Monmouth's last game at Central Connecticut State.
MU cut the lead to 53-52 at the 5:08 mark of the game after a Delic three-pointer, but St. Francis's Robert Hines scored 12 straight points to give the Terriers a 65-54 lead. Free throws by St. Francis's Marcus Williams and Jamaal Womack sealed the win for the Terriers.
The Terriers were led by Hines's 20 points, including 16 in the second half, to go along with nine rebounds and four assists. Sheppard added 19 and Womack scored 16, including four three-point field goals.
St. Francis (N.Y.) jumped out to a 6-0 lead a minute and a half into the game as Allan Sheppard converted a traditional three-point play to spark the early run. The Terriers increased their lead to 14-7 at the 11:42 mark when Womack hit his second three-point field goal from the top of the key.
St. Francis (N.Y.) would find themselves up by as many nine points at 23-14 with 7:09 remaining in the first half after a Bass Yessoufou three-point play.
The Hawks then rattled off a 13-4 scoring run of their own over the next 4:59 to tie the score at 27-27, capped off by an Alston lay-up. With the score tied 29-29 after a Corey Hallett (Shelburne, Nova Scotia, Canada) lay-up with 1:22 left before halftime, the Terriers would close the first half scoring the final five points, all by Sheppard, to give St. Francis (N.Y.) a 34-29 halftime advantage.
Monmouth took its first lead at 39-38 with 17:44 left in the game as a Delic three-pointer capped a 10-4 MU run to open the second half.
The Terriers connected on 22-of-32 free throws, while MU hit 9-of-11 from the charity stripe. St. Francis (N.Y.) held a 31-21 advantage on the glass and hit 55.3 % of their field goals.
Monmouth returns to action on Thursday, January 25 when they host St. Francis (Pa.) for a 7:00 p.m. tip.
Pictured: Senior Marques Alston
