WEST LONG BRANCH, NJ – Micah Seaborn (Fort Worth, TX/Prime Prep Academy) knocked in two free throws with five seconds left to propel the Monmouth men's basketball team to an opening night victory over Bucknell, 79-78 Friday at the OceanFirst Bank Center.
Seaborn held the ball and drove the lane, drawing a foul with five seconds to go and draining both foul shots. On the final Bucknell possession, Kimbal Mackenzie let go of a triple that was off the mark and freshman
Melik Martin (York, PA/York Catholic) corralled his eighth rebound to secure the victory.
Bucknell did not lead until the 5:45 mark of the second half on Bruce Moore's three pointer. The lead changed hands seven times after that point, and was tied seven other times down the stretch. Monmouth led from the 16:59 mark of the opening half until Moore's three at 5:45, and held a 41-31 lead at the break.
NOTES AND QUOTES
"Tonight I felt like our kids really stuck together, I was probably as nervous as I was at my first game at Monmouth tonight, because we have a lot of new kids and kids in new positions." –
King Rice
"We just shot 49% against a team that has a lot of veterans back and had West Virginia on the ropes in the tournament. I'm just proud of these kids."
-Monmouth improves to 5-2 in season openers under
King Rice, and 6-1 in home openers under Rice. Monmouth has not lost a home opener since 2013.
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Diago Quinn recorded a career high 16 points, his second career game in double figures and second in a row (2017 NIT vs. Ole Miss).
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Micah Seaborn recorded his first career double-double, leading the Hawks in scoring with 21 points and rebounds with 10.
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Ray Salnave and
Deion Hammond each scored their first collegiate points.
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Zac Tillman, playing in his first game since 2016, converted a three-point play for his first bucket of the year.
NUMBERS CRUNCH
-Freshman
Melik Martin snagged eight rebounds, second on the team, in his first career game, with seven coming in the first half.
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Deion Hammond was 5-for-8 with 13 points in his collegiate debut.
-Three Hawks worked into double figures, with Seaborn (21) leading the way with Quinn (16) and Hammond (13) joining him.
-Zach Thomas was the game's leading scorer, finishing with 31 points on 12-23 FG.
-Monmouth went 15-of-17 from the line in the second half.
UP NEXT
-Monmouth heads to the road against Seton Hall on Sunday afternoon to play the Pirates at 1:30 p.m. at the Prudential Center.
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