“Tonight felt great,” stated Nicholas, who connected on 10 field goals, four of which were three-pointers. “All along the coaches have told us if we buy in to what the staff is saying, which is defense, we have a enough scorers on offense that we just need to lock down on defense. Our defense was incredible tonight, and with our numbers this year, we have fresh people coming in off the bench.”
Head coach
King Rice commented, “When our kids guard and rebound, we have a chance to play with anybody. I just have to keep convincing them to do the little things, and we will have big nights like this.”
Monmouth raced out to a 15-3 advantage after a trio of layups from
Marcus Ware,
Tyrone O'Garro, Nicholas and
Stephen Spinella with 13:50 remaining, before the Pride rattled off a 14-4 run to climb within 19-17 on Jimmy Hall's tip-in with 9:31 showing.
The Hawks answered with a 7-0 spurt, and behind three straight treys from Nicholas, MU went ahead 32-20 with 7:02 showing. An 11-0 run, capped by
Gary Cox's lay-in doubled the score at 40-20 with 4:50 remaining, and the Blue and White pushed its lead back to 20-points, 50-30, with 55.7 ticks left on a pair of Spinella foul shots.
The Hawks, who last scored 50 points in the opening half against Penn in a home win on December 12, 2009, connected on 52.8% from the floor (19-36) in the stanza, as Nicholas connected for a team-best 18 points.
Monmouth inflated its lead to 21 points, 52-31 out of the break on Ware's post move, before the Pride connected on a pair of three-pointers to climb within 56-43 with 12:50 left, following Shaquille Stokes' trey.
A pair of Ware free throws, combined with consecutive drives from Nicholas put the Hawks ahead 62-43 with 10:37 left, but Hofstra answered with six straight to pull within 62-49 at 9:57.
Christian White's pull-up jumper stopped the Pride run at 9:48, while Nicholas' career-high tying jumper gave MU a 66-52 edge with 8:20 showing.
After four straight points from Nicholas,
Jesse Steele netted 10 straight for the Hawks, including consecutive threes, to put Monmouth ahead 80-57 with 3:59 left.
Less than a minute later, Spinella's first three-pointer for the Hawks pushed MU in front 83-58, while a pair of Cox lay-ins gave the Blue and White 27-point edges.
Rice added, “I am excited for our kids and the crowd was incredible. I am so happy for our kids because last year it took so long for us to get that first win.”
The Hawks hit 36-of-72 from the field and 12-of-13 from the foul line (92.3%) in the season-opening win.
Nicholas, who went 4-for-4 from the free throw stripe, added three rebounds and three assists, while Steele notched 10 points, six assists and four steals. Cox added 10 points, while Spinella and
Ed Waite (six rebounds) notched nine points each.
Khalil Brown, in his first collegiate game added four points and nine boards.
Four Pride players scored in double-figures, led by Stevie Mejia and Stokes, who each had 12 points. Jimmy Hall recorded a double-double with 11 points and 12 rebounds for Hofstra, which hit just 29.2% from the floor.
Monmouth returns to action on Monday, November 12, when the Hawks travel to South Bend, Indiana to take on No. 22 Notre Dame in the opening round of the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic.
