HEFEI, China- Six Hawks scored in double-figures and the team poured in 111 points in a win over the Anhui Wenfi Basketball Club on Wednesday afternoon at Hefei Arena, 111-101. Rising junior center Chris Brady (Greenlawn, N.Y./Harborfields) led the way with 24 points on 12-13 shooting, while rising junior guard Justin Robinson (Lake Katrine, N.Y./Kingston) netted 21 points for the Blue and White, who move to 2-1 on the trip to China.
“I'm very excited for our kids, I thought that our team really handled a lot of adversity tonight in the game with the physicality of the game and using a different starting lineup,” said Head Coach King Rice. “All those things and we were able to gather and come out on top."
Zac Tillman (Yeadon, Pa./Shipley School) started the high-scoring afternoon with a bucket from the left block. Monmouth jumped out 9-3 on a Greg Noack (Bethlehem, Pa./Liberty) offensive rebound and put back and Brady's first bucket, a nice inside move to put the Hawks up six.
The lead opened up to 14-6 at the 6:52 mark of the first when Noack flushed one, the first of 10 Monmouth dunks on the day, and Max DiLeo (Cinnaminson, N.J./Cinnaminson) drilled a straightaway triple. Brady took a nice feed from Deon Jones (Wilmington, Del./Sanford School/Towson) into a two-handed dunk a short time later, and after a pair of Anhui Wenyi triples put them up five, Je'Lon Hornbeak (Arlington, Texas/Grace Prep/Oklahoma) gathered a bounding offensive rebound and floated one through to cut the deficit to three.
Robinson would tie the game, slicing through the defense two straight trips to knot the score at 25, which is where it stood after one quarter. Austin Tilghman (Wilmington, Del./Archbishop Carroll [Pa.]) opened the second quarter with a pair of strong drives and finishes with a Jones long two sandwiched in between, but a pair of floaters inside from Anhui Wenyi kept them in front, 32-31.
The back-and-forth first half continued when Robinson tied the game at 34 on a pull-up three from the right wing, the start of a hot stretch for the point guard. He raced the floor to lay one in, then hit Jones on the move to put MU up 38-36 at the 8:11 mark of the second quarter.
The teams traded buckets for a solid four-minute stretch of the second stanza, with the Hawks getting a Brady hook and a Collin Stewart (Glenville, N.Y./Mekeel Christian Academy) lay-in before Hornbeak hit a falling away jumper plus one after getting a steal to start the possession.
A pair of jump shots from Josh James (Greenburgh, N.Y./Archbishop Stepinac) and Hornbeak put Monmouth on top momentarily, but a triple put Anhui Wenyi back up 51-49 with 2:28 left in the second. Robinson scored on a drive but at the half, it was the home team up 57-52.
Starting the second half, Tilghman cleared out his defender to grab a rebound and went the length, scoring and getting fouled to make it 59-55. He and Robinson followed that with a pair of leaners, and Jones and Brady dunked on back-to-back possessions to give Monmouth a 67-64 lead at 7:57 of the third. Those dunks came in the midst of a 10-0 MU run, which continued with another dunk when Noack hammered home a lob from Robinson and Brady shuffled inside to make it 71-64 Hawks.
Down the stretch in the third, Tillman and Brady both put home dunks to make it 81-76. Anhui Wenyi closed the quarter with four in a row, and Monmouth took an 83-82 lead into the fourth.
Noack finished a thunderous dunk over a defender, and Robinson and Jones went back-to-back to put Monmouth up six with 9:45 left. Jones later followed a miss with a tip-slam to make it 91-87 with around eight minutes left in the game.
MU pulled away late, getting consecutive buckets from Brady and a wing three-ball from Hornbeak. Tilghman put it out of reach with five straight points to make it 106-97 with 2:10 remaining, and Hornbeak drilled a pull up with 1:25 left as MU took game three of the trip, 111-101.
Unofficial stats included Brady scoring 24 with seven boards on 12-13 from the floor, and Robinson netting 21 with six rebounds and three steals. Tilghman finished with 18 on 7-9 FG, while Hornbeak had 12 points, five rebounds, and four steals on 5-8 shooting. Noack added 11 points and Jones had 10 and six rebounds, while DiLeo totaled six steals.
Former Kansas forward and NBA draft pick Darnell Jackson played for Anhui Wenyi, scoring 15 points and grabbing 10 rebounds in the loss.
The final game of the trip is set for 4:00 p.m. tomorrow, Thursday May 28, against the same Anhui Wenyi team at Heifi Arena.
Additional Rice quotes:
On former NBA player Darnell Jackson playing for Anhui Wenyi: Anytime you see an American player on a team it makes you excited because you can get some feedback from him, and a guy who played at Kansas and had a lot of success and played in the NBA D-League and then over here playing for the [Shanghai] Sharks, he was very complimentary of our big young guys.
On Chris Brady: Chris Brady's been getting better since the day he stepped on campus and I'm just really proud of him, the way he is maturing.
On Austin Tilghman: He's getting more and more confident but the thing with Austin is, his body is changing and he's getting in really good shape and you can see it on the floor. Austin has always been one of the best leaders I've ever seen playing basketball so it's going to be fun for our fans watching him mature on the floor.
On Justin Robinson: Once again Justin Robinson did a great job of getting us together and leading the group, and helping us come out on top in a tough game.
Darnell Jackson on the game and Monmouth: There's a lot of talent over there, especially [Austin TIlghman], he's just a freshman. He has a bright future ahead of him. The young guys need to keep their heads on right and keep working how they're working, I see the coaching staff has these guys on the right path to be successful on and off the court.
Tilghman quotes
On the approach to the game: We came into the game and we knew we could attack and drive the rim and that's what we wanted to do. In the first half we kind of shied away, we wanted to shoot jump shots. Coach kept telling us to keep going to the rim, that's what we did and we were successful.
On losing the lead and getting it back: We had to keep playing hard. We knew with these guys it would be a physical game, we wanted to just keep playing hard and attacking the rim.
Brady Quotes
On the game: Everything was falling, I got my mind right before the game. It's all about preparation. I think in transition everybody was clicking, everybody was being unselfish with the ball in transition and everything was going in.
On going against Darnell Jackson: He was really strong, strong chest and big body but I played it like how I play every game.
Unofficial Monmouth stats
James: 2 points, 2 rebounds
DiLeo: 5 points, 4 rebounds, 6 steals
Noack: 11 points, 3 rebounds, 5-7 FG
Jones: 10 points, 6 rebounds, 5-10 FG
Hornbeak: 12 points, 5 rebounds, 5-8 FG, 4 steals
Robinson: 21 points, 6 rebounds, 8-17 FG, 3 steals
Tilghman: 18 points, 3 rebounds, 7-9 FG
Stewart: 2 points, 1 rebound
Tillman: 6 points, 4 rebounds
Brady: 24 points, 7 rebounds, 12-13 FG
monmouth basketball wins shootout over anhui wenyi, 111-101 in heifi wednesday
