WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J. - With 17.8 seconds left, junior Mike Myers Keitt tied the game at 68-68 with a pair of free throws, while senior James Hett's foul shot with 1.1 ticks remaining, lifted the Monmouth University men's basketball team to a 69-68 victory over defending Patriot League champion, Lehigh University, on Friday night. Monmouth, which trailed by six points with 3:40 left, and four with just over a minute remaining, improves to 1-1, while the Mountain Hawks fall to 1-2 on the year.

Trailing by six, Monmouth climbed within 65-61 with 2:42 showing behind a pair of Ed Waite free throws, before R.J. Rutledge's offensive rebound and putback trimmed the deficit to two, 65-63, with 2:04 left. Lehigh answered with an offensive putback of its own when Gabe Knutson bailed out the Mountain Hawks on C.J. McCollum's miss, to put LU ahead 67-63 with just over a minute remaining.

On the following trip down the floor, Hett drilled a wing three-pointer for the Hawks to trim the lead to 67-66 with 40.1 ticks left, before Mackey McKnight connected on a free throw with 32.8 seconds remaining to put Lehigh ahead 68-66. After a timeout, Myers Keitt was fouled with 17.8 ticks showing and with the side in the double bonus, the forward drained both foul shots to knot the score at 68-68.

On the ensuing possession, McCollum missed a game-winning three-point attempt for Lehigh, and as Waite secured the defensive rebound, Hett was fouled on his block out assignment with 1.1 ticks left. Despite missing the first free throw, Hett drilled the second to put Monmouth in front 69-68, while Myers Keitt slapped away Lehigh's inbounds pass to end the game.

"The key to the game was that these guys did not quit," stated head coach Dave Calloway. "Defense won this game for us, a combination of intensity and working together."

Hett, who was one assist away from tying his career-best finished with eight assists, and 16 points, while tying a career-high with three three-pointers. Waite notched a team-best and career-high 20 points for the Hawks, while leading the side with seven rebounds. Rutledge added 17 points in his first start since December 2008, while adding three rebounds and two assists. Freshman Jordan Davis, who added three rebounds and three steals, handed out six assists of his own.

Monmouth opened the scoring on Waite's post move, before Lehigh answered with consecutive jumpers in the lane to take an early 4-2 edge. After McCollum connected on a pair of free throws to put Lehigh in front 6-4 with 16:49 showing, the Hawks put together a 10-0 run over a 1:33 span to claim a 14-6 lead. In the run, Hett drilled a wing trey and Rutledge drained a three-pointer in transition to cap the span.

Following the Hawks corralling an eight-point lead, the Mountain Hawks rattled off the next six points, before Nick DelTufo's tip-in maintained a 16-12 advantage for MU, with 10:44 remaining.

Trailing by four, Lehigh connected on four straight three-pointers, including a pair from Michael Ojo, to snare a 24-16 lead with 6:17 left until the break.

Phil Wait's short jumper off an inbounds play, ten seconds later, pulled Monmouth within 24-18, but Ojo notched the next three points to give Lehigh its largest lead of the stanza, 27-18 with 4:30 remaining.

Trailing by nine once again, Davis drilled a corner three-pointer for the Hawks to make the score 29-23 with 3:20 on the board, but Ojo's fourth trifecta put Lehigh back in front 34-25 with 1:46 left in the half.

A pair of Hett free throws allowed Monmouth to climb within 34-27 but Knutson's lay-in with 55 ticks left maintained a 36-27 lead for the Mountain Hawks at the intermission.

Out of the locker room, Waite scored the first eight points of the second half, all in the lane, to pull the Hawks within 36-35 with 17:26 remaining in the game. After Rutledge's pull-up jumper in transition, off a feed from Hett, at the top of the key pulled MU within 38-37, the Mountain Hawks inflated the lead to 42-37 on Knutson's offensive rebound and putback.

Monmouth raced back into the game with a 7-0 spurt in the next two minutes of action, capped by Hett's corner trifecta, to take its first lead since it was 16-15, with 13:30 showing as the Hawks took a 44-42 lead.

The two sides traded treys over the next minute, as Rutledge's trey from the top of the key reclaimed a 47-45 advantage for the Blue and White with 11:56 remaining.

Two Knutson foul shots knotted the score at 47-47 with 11:26 showing, but the Hawks rallied with a 6-0 run, highlighted by a pair of Waite baskets in the lane to take a 53-47 advantage with 9:57 on the board.

Trailing by seven following a Marcus Ware foul shot, McCollum drilled two straight short jumpers to make the score 54-51 with 8:08 left. Ware's post move reclaimed a 56-51 advantage for Monmouth, but McCollum drained two straight pull-up jumpers along the baseline to make the score 56-55 with 6:00 showing.

Ojo connected on a free throw and dropped in a basket on his own miss to push the Mountain Hawks back in front, 58-56, with 5:30 left, and Lehigh upped its run to 13-2 over a 3:43-span to take 60-56 lead with 4:51 left.

Rutledge connected on his third three-pointer of the game to pull Monmouth within 60-59 with 4:29 remaining, but Ojo's fifth trey and another McCollum runner put Lehigh ahead 65-59 with 3:40 on the clock.

Monmouth, which connected on 47.3% from the field, registered 19 assists on 26 made field goals. Lehigh, which was led by Ojo's 23 points and seven rebounds, hit 49.0% (25-51) from the floor in the game. McCollum (19 points, five rebounds) and Knutson (12 points, six rebounds) also scored in double-figures for the Mountain Hawks.

Monmouth returns to action on November 27, when the Hawks open Northeast Conference play at Central Connecticut State in Detrick Gym, at 2:00 p.m.