WEST LONG BRANCH, NJ – Justin Robinson (Lake Katrine, NY/Kingston) hit a career-high six first-half threes and scored 28 total points on the afternoon as the Hawks never trailed in beating Marist, 83-72 Sunday afternoon at The MAC. Monmouth is now 15-5 and 7-2 in conference this season, while Marist falls to 4-14 and 1-8 in the league.
"I'm proud of my kids," said head coach King Rice. "We shook off an emotional loss Thursday for most of today's game and got the win."
The Hawks extended their lead to as high as 24, doing so on a pair of Micah Seaborn (Fort Worth, TX/Prime Prep Academy) free throws with 10:40 left shortly after Je'lon Hornbeak (Arlington, TX/Grace Prep) knocked down a wing triple. The Monmouth lead climbed back to 22 after Khallid Hart scored four in a row before a Diago Quinn (New York, NY/Lake Forest Academy [IL]) put back underneath with 7:42 remaining. The Red Foxes went on a 9-0 run to cut the deficit to 11, getting four points from Brian Parker and five from Ryan Funk including a dunk.
Josh James (Greenburgh, NY/Archbishop Stepinac) knocked down a corner three with 3:07 to go, extending Monmouth's lead back to 12 after a Parker layup had cut it to nine. James followed with a pair of foul shots to make it 14, but five consecutive points from Funk trimmed it back to nine. Robinson and Seaborn combined to go 10-for-10 from the stripe in the final 1:30 to secure the win.
Robinson knocked in six triples in the opening half to give the Hawks a 13-point lead at the break. His first came at 16:01 to put the Blue and White up 10-4. Seaborn's three at the 10:40 mark of the opening half put the home team up 19-12, and with 7:04 to play in the half, Robinson knocked home his second trey. He would add two more almost instantly to bump the MU lead to 12, hitting three in 1:24 between 7:04 and 5:57.
After a Deon Jones (Wilmington, DE/Sanford School [Towson]) elbow jumper put Monmouth up 11, Robinson pulled a long three to extend the lead to 14 on his fifth triple of the period. He would add his sixth just 22 seconds later and Quinn and Chris Brady (Greenlawn, NY/Harborfields) went on to convert baskets late in the stanza to send Monmouth to the locker room with a 42-29 advantage.
Robinson scored 28 points, topping 20 for the 12th time this season and coming a point short of a career high. He was 8-for-18 and 6-for-10 from downtown. Seaborn posted 16 points on 4-10 FG, and Jones went into double-digits with 13 and seven boards. The Hawks shot 45.8% from the field, 45.5% from deep and 82.6% from the line in leading for 39:33 after taking the 1-0 lead 27 seconds in.
Marist got 24 points from both Hart and Parker, while the latter added 12 rebounds for a double-double. Funk also pitched in 16 points, and the Red Foxes shot 34.3% from the floor, 19.4 % from the outside and 86.4% from the foul line.
Monmouth returns to action on Thursday night at Quinnipiac, with tip slated for 7:00 p.m.
