LAKE BUENA VISTA, FL – Justin Robinson (Lake Katrine, NY/Kingston) scored 27 points and set a tournament scoring record with 77 total points in the three games as Monmouth's men's basketball team beat USC 83-73 on Sunday afternoon to finish third in the AdvoCare Invitational. Robinson's scoring output tops former NBA first-round pick Michael Beasley's 73, scored in the 2007 edition while with Kansas State. Monmouth is now 4-2 and finishes 2-1 in the tournament, while USC is 5-2 overall.
"Today, I thought it was an energy game," said head coach King Rice. "It's hard for kids to play three days in a row, but here you get the one-day break and it's almost harder to get going unless you're in the championship game. I just try to tell my guys we just have to play with energy. There's going to be one of the teams that grabs hold of this game with their energy and that's who is going to win, and tonight that was us."
The Trojans made a late push that Monmouth answered, with USC cutting the deficit to three with 2:02 remaining on a pair from the foul line by Julian Jacobs. With 1:50 left, MU called timeout and got the ball to Deon Jones (Wilmington, DE/Sanford School [Towson]), who drove from in front of Monmouth's bench to dunk over two Southern Cal defenders and extend the lead back to five. Nikola Jovanovic hit two free throws to trim it back to back to three, and Robinson answered with another three-pointer with 56 seconds left that would prove to be the dagger, breaking the tournament scoring record in the process. Jones put home a pair from the line before Micah Seaborn (Fort Worth, TX/Prime Prep Academy) delivered the exclamation point with a three-point play with 32 seconds to go, and Monmouth would go on to win by 10, 83-73.
Monmouth did not trail after the 5:02 mark of the first half, leading the entire second stanza and going up by as many as 14. Leading by nine at the half after a pretty reverse from Seaborn heading into the break, the Hawks came out and immediately went up 12 on foul shots from Zac Tillman (Yeadon, PA/Shipley School) and a right-side triple from Seaborn. Robinson knocked down a three at the 16:37 point to put Monmouth up 13, and less than a minute later, Seaborn hit another three, this one from the corner to extend the lead to 14.
USC couldn't get any closer than nine until the 8:49 point in the second half, when a Darion Clark layup cut the Monmouth lead to seven. Katin Reinhardt sliced the lead to five with 6:02 to go before Robinson connected from distance to extend the margin back to eight. USC then put in four straight on baskets from Nikola Jovanovic and Julian Jacobs to cut the lead to back down to four ahead of Collin Stewart (Glenville, NY/Mekeel Christian Academy) swishing a left-wing trey to knock the gap back to seven.
Monmouth trailed 17-11 before an 11-0 run put them in front 22-11. That run was sparked by Je'lon Hornbeak (Arlington, TX/Grace Pre [Oklahoma]) burying back-to-back three-pointers, both from just right of the circle straightaway. USC led for the first 10+ minutes of the game until Hornbeak's first triple tied the game and second put the Blue and White in front. USC would fight back to take a 24-22 lead on a Bennie Boatwright jumper with 5:12 left in the first half, the last time the Trojans would go in front.
Robinson finished with 27 points, seven rebounds, three steals and three assists to total 77 points in the three games, a tournament record. He shot 9-15 from the floor and knocked home five three-pointers for the second consecutive game. Seaborn netted a career-high 20 points on 7-14, making four threes for the first time in his young career. Jones added his fifth career double-double with 14 points and 10 caroms, shooting 4-11 and 6-7 from the foul line.
Jacobs led USC with 19 points on 7-16, while Bennie Boatwright added 16 and nine rebounds for the Trojans. Reinhardt added 11 and Jordan McLaughlin had five assists. Monmouth shot 40.6% from the floor, 40% from deep and 86.4% from the foul line while USC went 35.7% FG, 13.6% from three and 60.6% from the stripe.
The Hawks finish third in the AdvoCare Invitational, equaling the best finish for a MAAC team in the tournament since Marist took third in 2006, the inaugural year of the tournament in a field that contained no ranked teams. The win is also the teams second over a Pac-12 school this season (84-80 OT win over UCLA on 11/13).
MU is back on the floor on Friday night, December 4 against Canisius for the opening game of MAAC play. Tip is set for 7:00 p.m. on ESPN3.
