WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J. – Monmouth University had its three-game win streak halted with its 71-48 loss to Quinnipiac University in Northeast Conference action on Saturday night in the MAC. Monmouth, which fell to 7-18 overall, stands at 5-7 in the NEC, while the Bobcats improve to 13-10 and 6-6 in the league in the matchup of two teams tied for sixth place.
“We thoroughly got outplayed tonight,” stated head coach
King Rice. “When you don't answer the challenge, you get a beat down, and that's what we got tonight. We got exactly what we deserved. We got out-toughed, out-played and out-coached. Quinnipiac played like they wanted to take sixth place over, and we let them.”
Paced by a pair of three-pointers, Quinnipiac opened the game with an 11-2 lead, before
Jesse Steele drilled a trey of his own from the top of the key to make the score 11-5 with 16:17 on the clock. QU dropped in consecutive baskets to push the lead to 15-5 at 14:55, before Steele, who scored Monmouth's first nine points, connected on a reverse layup to make the tally 17-9 with 13:56 left.
The Bobcats connected on a trio of hoops in the paint to inflate their cushion to 23-9 with 11:27 showing, and after solo foul shots from
Marcus Ware and
Will Campbell, Quinnipiac dropped in two more lay-ups to push the lead to 27-11 with 9:20 left.
Quinnipiac, which doubled up the Hawks 34-17 on James Johnson's three-pointer, led 36-19 at 4:42, before Monmouth recorded a 6-0 spurt, including a pair of baskets from
Marcus Ware, to climb within 36-25 with 2:45 remaining, which held until the intermission.
The Hawks climbed within 36-29 out of the break after layups from
Dion Nesmith and
Phill Wait off a feed from
Austin Tillotson, with 17:47 left in the game, but QU responded with the next five points, all from Garvey Young, to snare a 41-29 advantage.
QU pushed its lead to 53-36 following Jamee Jackson's second straight basket, before Nesmith's drive made the tally 53-38 with 8:38 left.
The Bobcats answered with a 10-3 run to hold a 63-41 lead with 3:45 in the contest, as three Nesmith foul shots accounted for the Monmouth offense over a near five-minute span.
Nesmith's jumper and a Steele driving basket made the score 65-45 with 2:14 remaining, while
Daniel James drilled a foul line jump shot to make the tally 69-48.
Steele and Nesmith each registered double-digit games for Monmouth, with 13 and 10 points, respectively, while Ware added eight points for the Hawks, who committed a season-low 10 turnovers.
“You have to rebound against them [Quinnipiac] and you have to keep them out of the lane. We couldn't do either today.”
Quinnipiac held a 50-29 advantage off the boards, and tallied 36 of its 71 points in the paint, while Monmouth connected on just 32.7% from the field and 1-of-13 from beyond the arc.
Quinnipiac was paced by James Johnson's game-high 18 points, while four other Bobcats scored at least eight points.
Monmouth returns to action on Wednesday, February 8 when the Hawks travel to Garden State rival Fairleigh Dickinson for an NEC Rivalry Week showdown with the Knights in Stratis Arena. Tip-off is set for 7:00 p.m.
