WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J. - Monmouth University's women's basketball team sent its five seniors and historic William T. Boylan Gym out in style with a 67-56 victory over Wagner on Saturday afternoon. The Hawks improve to 16-12 and 10-7 on the season while the Seahawks fall to 7-21 and 3-14 in the Northeast Conference.
“I am so happy for the seniors to finish the regular season with a win and guarantee us a winning season,” said MU head coach Stephanie V. Gaitley. “We've had our ups and downs through the season, but we stayed together off the court and that caused us to play our best basketball right now.”
The five Monmouth University seniors, LaKia Barber (Clinton, Md./Gwynn Park), Jennifer Bender (Staten Island, N.Y./Staten Island Tech), Marbely Montas (Cranford, N.J./Elizabeth), Laura Forbes (Eatontown, N.J./Monmouth Regional) and Marisa Jimenez (Carteret, N.J./Carteret), played their final home game in what was the final regular season game held in Boylan Gym. The Hawks sprinted out to a 13-0 lead in the first half and Wagner never recovered, getting only as close as 11 points the rest of the way.
Down by 17 to start the second half, the Seahawks were able to close the gap to 13 on two occasions during the first five minutes but each time Monmouth's offense answered with points to keep Wagner at bay. Eight straight Bender points put MU ahead 50-29 with 13:27 left in regulation, however seven minutes later, Monmouth's advantage was 11 points. In the end, MU was able to respond each time they needed to offensively and continued to play stout defense, earning the victory.
Monmouth built an 8-0 lead over the first 90 seconds after back-to-back three pointers by Alexis Scott (Somerset, N.J./Franklin) and Jimenez. Bender hit her second jump shot at the 14:45 mark, pushing the Hawk lead to 13-0. MU's defensive intensity continued, with Wagner going scoreless until the 13:40 mark of the first half. The Hawks were also efficient with the ball, shooting almost 60% thru the first 11 minutes of the game, building a 25-6 advantage along the way. Wagner started to claw back over the final minutes of the half, overcoming a deficit as large as 20 but still went into the locker room down 38-21.
MU's seniors accounted for 28 of its 29 second half points en route to the win. Bender led the way with 19 points and nine rebounds while Barber contributed 18 points and four rebounds. Montas added four points and six rebounds while Jimenez scored nine points, pulled down seven rebounds and dished out seven assists. Forbes tied a career-high with six points and Scott added six points, eight rebounds and a career-high eight assists.
The NEC Tournament-bound Hawks will wrap up their regular season on Monday night when they face Central Connecticut State in New Britain at 7:00 p.m.
