WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J. - Mount St. Mary's University connected on 20-for-25 from the free throw line in the final 13 minutes of the game, to hand Monmouth a 76-66 defeat at home in Northeast Conference men's basketball action on Saturday night.
Monmouth (5-19, 2-10 NEC), which led by five points with 9:51 left in the game, falls to 1-10 at home on the year. The Mount (11-13, 7-6 NEC) outscored Monmouth 31-16 over the final 9:02 to claim the victory.
Whitney Coleman poured in Monmouth's first six points of the game, to give the Hawks a 6-2 edge at 17:51, and the Hawks led 11-8 with 15:04 left when Nick DelTufo's post move resulted in a basket.
Kelly Beidler's layup gave the Mountaineers a 12-11 edge with 14:11 remaining, and the Mount pushed its lead to 22-13 when, capping a 10-0 run, when Will Holland drained a corner three-pointer in transition.
Monmouth, which went scoreless for 5:25, pulled within seven with 8:09 remaining, as Coleman snatched an offensive rebound and his put-back made the tally 22-15.
The Blue and White trimmed the deficit to 22-19 behind a 6-0 spurt, when James Hett's cutting layup pulled Monmouth within three points. The Mountaineers answered with a 6-0 run of their own to inflate the cushion to 28-19 with 4:24 showing.
After Monmouth made the score 28-24, after Coleman's backdoor layup and Hett's three-point play, the two squads exchanged two-point possessions over the final 3:25 of the half, as Mount St. Mary's held a 34-30 edge at the break.
Monmouth, which trailed by nine points with 4:24 left in the opening stanza, climbed back to even at 34-34, as the Hawks netted the first four points out of the intermission. R.J. Rutledge drilled a wing trey to open the second half and Coleman's free throw with 18:41 showing pulled MU square.
The Hawks grabbed their first lead since it was 13-12, when DelTufo's layup put Monmouth ahead 38-36 with 16:25 left. Rutledge then drilled a three-pointer at 16:05 to put MU ahead 41-36, as the freshman scored eight points in the opening four minutes of the stanza.
The Mount tied the score at 43-43 with 13:12 when Jean Cajou delivered a traditional three-point play, but the Hawks answered with the next four points, a Dutch Gaitley lay-in and two Rutledge foul shots, to reclaim a 47-43 edge with 12:18 remaining.
With 9:51 left in the contest, Gaitley's free throw gave Monmouth a 50-45 edge, but behind a heavy dose of Mount St. Mary's free throws, and Chris Vann's three-pointer with 6:05 left, the Mountaineers corralled a 55-52 lead.
After MSM extended its advantage to 56-52, Coleman stopped a nearly four-minute scoreless drought for the Hawks with two free throws, making the score 56-54 with 4:38 left. The Mountaineers, who scored nine of their points from the charity stripe under the 12:18-mark of the second half, pushed the lead to 60-54 when Holland drilled a three.
Coleman and Vann exchanged trifectas in successive possessions, but Vann's second straight trey gave the Mountaineers a 66-57 cushion with 1:40 remaining. Mount, which hit three trifectas in consecutive trips down the floor, claimed its largest lead of the game, 68-57, with 1:15 left.
Yaniv Simpson maintained life for the Hawks with 49.3 ticks left when he drilled a long three-pointer, to pull Monmouth within 69-62, but the Mountaineers hit foul shots down the stretch to put the game away.
Coleman, who hit 7-of-13 from the floor, led all scorers with 18 points, and pulled down eight rebounds. Rutledge finished with 14 points, all in the second half. Hett chipped in 11 points on 4-of-5 shooting.
The Mount had four players score in double-figures, led by the duo of Jeremy Goode and Vann, who each netted 15 points, as the Mountaineers hit 52.4% from the field for the match.
Monmouth, which plays its next three games on the road, returns to action on Saturday, when the Hawks travel to Wagner, for a 7 p.m. match-up with the Seahawks.
