LOS ANGELES, CA – For the first time in program history, the Monmouth University men's basketball team beat a PAC-12 opponent on Friday night, defeating 2015 Sweet 16 participant UCLA 84-81 in overtime before a crowd of 6,674 at Pauley Pavilion. The Hawks overcame a 13-point second half deficit and a five-point gap in overtime to knock off the Bruins on opening night, going on a 9-1 run to finish the game. The win moves the Hawks to 1-0 on the year, while UCLA, who is receiving votes in the AP Top 25, drops to 0-1.

"Our kids kept believing," said head coach King Rice. "These guys aren't afraid of the moment. We have a great group of kids."

Collin Stewart (Glenville, NY/Mekeel Christian Academy) skied for an offensive rebound and went to the line with 18.9 seconds remaining in overtime, hitting both free throws to give MU an 82-81 lead after trailing 80-75 less than two minutes earlier. Je'lon Hornbeak (Arlington, TX/Grace Prep [Oklahoma]) rebounded a Bruins' miss with 8.9 seconds to play and buried both from the stripe, and Aaron Holiday's three-point attempt at the buzzer to tie the game was off the mark, giving Monmouth an opening -night upset in Los Angeles.

Monmouth trailed 80-75 in the extra session before junior Zac Tillman (Yeadon, PA/Shipley School) knocked home four straight free throws on back-to-back possessions to cut the lead to one. Hornbeak ripped a loose ball away on the baseline and Micah Seaborn (Arlington, TX/Prime Prep) drew a foul on the ensuing drive, hitting one of two free throws to tie the game at 80. After Aaron Holiday split a pair from the free throw line, Monmouth went on the 4-1 spurt to end overtime and get the win. All of Monmouth's nine points to finish the game on a 9-1 stretch came from the charity stripe.

UCLA's largest lead came at the 12:29 mark of the second half, when they went up 53-40 on Tony Parker's layup. Monmouth cut the lead to 57-50 at the 8:53 point on freshman Diago Quinn's (New York City, NY/Lake Forest Academy [IL]) putback before an 9-0 Monmouth run a short time later put the Hawks in front. Hornbeak got to the rim and finished before Stewart put home two free throws. Seaborn scored four of the next seven, the second time to put the Blue and White in front on a breakaway off a feed from Hornbreak to make it 61-60 Monmouth.

Neither team put together a lead of more than four the rest of regulation, with Justin Robinson (Lake Katrine, NY/Kingston) canning a three to give Monmouth a 71-70 edge with 1:46 to go. Holiday answered with a triple of his own to give the Bruins a two-point edge, and Stewart notched a pair from the line with 54 seconds left to tie the game. Hornbeak missed a three-pointer and Josh James (Greenburgh, NY/Archbishop Stepinac) stole UCLA's inbounds attempt in the final second to send the contest to OT.

The Hawks led during the first half by as many as six after an Austin Tilghman (Wilmington, DE/Archbishop Carroll [PA]) pull-up jumper with 9:01 to play in the opening stanza. The score was tied five times in the first twenty minutes, and the Bruins took a 34-30 lead into the locker room after scoring the final seven points of the half.

Monmouth fell behind 8-3 before going on a 7-0 run behind five straight points from Stewart and four from Quinn to take a 10-8 edge. The first half saw six lead changes and the game was tied for over three minutes during the opening frame.

Stewart led MU with 19 points on 5-13 shooting and 3-8 from downtown in addition to a clutch 6-6 from the foul line. Robinson added 16 points and six steals to go with three assists, while Seaborn shot 6-14 from the floor to total 14 points and five rebounds. Hornbeak scored seven while contributing six rebounds and four assists.

Parker had 19 points and 19 boards in the loss, while Bryce Alford scored 22 and added five assists. Thomas Welsh had a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds.

Monmouth forced 23 turnovers and turned that into a 23-5 edge in points off turnovers, while also outrunning UCLA in transition to the tune of 8-0 on the night. MU shot 37.5% from the field, 24.1% from downtown and 79.3% from the foul line while the Bruins went 37.1% from the floor, 38.1% from behind the arc and 63.6% from the stripe.

Monmouth remains in California through the weekend and concludes the trip at USC on Monday at the Galen Center. Tip is set for 10:00pm Eastern (7:00pm Pacific).

HAWK QUOTES

UCLA Head Coach Steve Alford

"This was a really tough opener obviously. I thought Monmouth played really well. We knew we were going to be in for a really tough game. We tried to explain it to the guys and I must have done a really poor job of getting that point across to them. Last year they played four big-time schools really tough. They have all of those guys back, plus a really good transfer in [Je'Lon] Hornbeak. They turned us over 23 times, and our guard play was atrocious. We couldn't handle the basketball, we couldn't make free-throws, and we couldn't make lay-ups. When you don't do those things and then you don't guard in the last 10 to 15 minutes, it makes it hard on you. Jonah [Bolden] was out tonight for disciplinary reasons, but we expect to have him back on Sunday. Hopefully that will make a difference in our rotation because our rotation was a little slight tonight and we ended up having guys log a lot of minutes. We obviously have a ton of work to do."

On what Monmouth was doing to get to the line late in the game

"They drove the ball hard and we missed some rebounds late. When we had a two or three point lead, we could have secured it, but we didn't. They drove us a little bit late, but I'll have to look at the tape. Without Jonah [Bolden] tonight, we were a little bit limited on being able to go guards against them. I thought Thomas [Welsh] was outstanding. Obviously, Tony's [Parker] stat line was tremendous for him having to guard a guard. I thought both bigs gave us a lot. We had a 13-point lead inside 10 minutes, and we have to finish the game. In my opinion, when you have that type of lead, your guards have to take care of the game and we just didn't do that."

"We really turned the ball over a lot. Credit them on their defense. They did well with playing passing lanes and being more active than we were. But we had 13 assists and 23 turnovers. That's not the type of team we are. Not at all. We probably led in almost every other category. They had 16 steals. It's hard to beat a team when they get 16 steals and you have 23 turnovers."

"We've just got to play better. A lot of us had a lot of turnovers. We can't turn the ball over at a high rate like that all the time. It's just not a good look as a team."

"Not much said. They kind of left it up to us. Obviously a loss like this hurts very much. Pretty disgusted in the way that we played, to say the least. Isaac (Hamilton), Tony (Parker) and myself, we've been there and been through everything you can imagine. We've got to step up and bring this team together and make sure we're ready to go."

Monmouth Head Coach King Rice

Opening statement…

"This win is for our school, our program, our Athletic Department, our President.  This was a momentous win for us.  I really have to thank Steve (Alford) for this.  We played in this tournament and I begged Steve over the summer to play us.  I felt like something like this would be good for our program.  I've known Steve and Coach Broussard for a very long time."

On the experience for his team …

"I just knew this would be a great trip for our kids to actually play in Pauley Pavilion on John Wooden Court.  We've taken a lot of lumps in the past, but we finally got a win.  I told these kids that if we stayed together, great things would happen."

About adversity…

"These guys just didn't want to hear my mouth.  I coach these guys really hard.  I watched their (UCLA) tape like 14 times.  I knew some of their out-of-bounds plays and some of their tendencies.  I also knew that Bryce (Alford) was very good.  I've been watching him since high school.  He is a lot better than you think.  I've been really watching Tony (Parker) as well.  I tried to recruit him when I was at Vanderbilt.  He has really improved."

Monmouth Junior Guard Collin Stewart

On tonight's win…

"We just basically stuck to what we know.  Once they pulled ahead of us, we just kept our poise and got the win. 

On their preparation for conference play…

"This game really doesn't prepare us yet for conference.  We haven't really started thinking about conference yet."