WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J. ? After trailing 40-36 with 12:30 left in the game, the University of Pennsylvania connected on 10 free throws in the final 2:30 minutes to escape Boylan Gym with a 69-61 win over Monmouth (2-6) in non-conference men's basketball action, on Saturday night.
Penn (3-7) opened the contest hitting four of its first five shots, jumping out to a 10-2 lead at 16:03, when Justin Reilly connected on a short jumper. The Hawks responded with a 7-0 run over the next 3:30 to pull within 10-9, as Jhamar Youngblood scored five straight and Dutch Gaitley's spin move and layup made it a one-point game with 12:32 until the break.
The Quakers opened a 16-11 lead at 10:06, but the Hawks rattled off a 9-4 run to knot the score at 20-20 when R.J. Rutledge dropped in a basket at 7:16. Monmouth corralled its first lead of the game, 21-20, at 6:35 when Youngblood connected on a free throw, and extended the edge to 22-20 when Rutledge hit a foul shot.
Rutledge put the Hawks ahead 27-24 with 4:08 on the clock, when the freshman drained a wing three, and Monmouth grabbed a 30-26 advantage when Alex Nunner's pull-up, baseline jumper dropped with 1:55 left.
Penn's Brian Grandieri scored back-to-back layups to tie the score at 30-30 with just over a minute remaining, but the Hawks answered with a Whitney Coleman lay-in and a Youngblood fast break hoop to hold a 34-30 lead at the intermission.
Monmouth maintained a four-point lead at 16:08 when George Barbour's power move to the basket gave the Hawks a 38-34 edge, before Grandieri connected on a baseline jumper to make it a two-point contest with 15 minutes left.
Jack Eggleston's two free throws at 12:05 pulled the Quakers within 40-38 and Tyler Bernadini's back-to-back layups gave Penn its first lead, 42-40, since 7:51 of the opening half.
Monmouth's scoring draught, which reached 2:50, ended at 9:40 when Coleman connected on a wing trifecta to reclaim the lead for the Hawks, but Bernadini scored his third straight basket at 9:22 to give Penn a 44-43 lead.
Barbour dropped in consecutive tough baskets at the rim to give Monmouth a 47-45 edge with 7:46 remaining, before Penn answered on three straight possessions to reclaim a 51-47 lead with 5:46 left.
After Conor Turley's free throw with 4:54 showing put Penn ahead 52-47, Nick DelTufo connected on both ends of a one-and-one to pull Monmouth within three points. DelTufo's layup as the shot clock expired made it a one-point game, but Aron Cohen answered with a wing trifecta to make the score 55-51 with 3:20 left.
Grandieri's seal down low, and successive layup at the 1:37 mark pushed the lead to 59-51 and his two free throws with 51 seconds left gave the Quakers a double-digit lead, 62-51.
Monmouth, which hit just nine field goals in the second half, cut the lead to 65-58, when James Hett connected on a three-pointer with 18.9 seconds left, and DelTufo's trey at the buzzer accounted for the 69-61 final.
Youngblood, who scored 13 of his team-high 15 points in the first half, added four steals and three rebounds, while three Quakers scored in double figures, led by Grandieri's 21 points.
Penn connected on 50.0% from the floor in the game (24-of-48), and 17-of-24 from the free throw line, while Monmouth ended 9-of-19 from the charity stripe.
Monmouth returns to action on Tuesday, December 11, when the Hawks travel to the University of Hartford for a 7 p.m., non-conference game.
