WEST LONG BRANCH, NJ – In a back-and-forth second half, Jalen Ray made a wing three for Hofstra with 2.1 seconds left to put the Pride in front to stay as Monmouth fell at home Wednesday, 85-84. The game featured six ties and 10 lead changes. Micah Seaborn (Fort Worth, TX/Prime Prep Academy) became the fourth fastest Hawk to score 1,000 career points in the game.

With the score tied at 79 with 38 seconds left, Austin Tilghman (Wilmington, DE/Archbishop Carroll) stole and was fouled, hitting the first. His second rimmed out, but Melik Martin (York, PA/York Catholic) tipped it back to put the Hawks up three. Tilghman then stole again and finished at the rim, plus the foul. His missed foul shot made it a five-point game.

Joel Angus made it a three-point game from under the rim with 10 seconds to go, and after two missed free throws, Justin Wright-Foreman was fouled for Hofstra. He made the first and intentionally missed the second, with the ball taking a perfect carom to Ray on the wing for what would prove to be the game-winning three.

Monmouth led by as many as 15 in the second half, but the Pride made five threes in a row to trim the lead. MU held the lead until Wright-Foreman's layup at 5:46, with the lead changing four times after that point.

The Hawks built up a 10-point lead down the stretch of the first half, and eventually led by 13 after Seaborn went 6-for-6 and scored his 1,000^th career point in the frame. MU scored the last five points of the period after Seaborn hit a three and Tilghman cut to the rim at the buzzer to make it 43-30 at the break.

NOTES AND QUOTES
"Give Hofstra a lot of credit, they never stopped fighting. I think we relaxed a little bit under 10 seconds and that cost us. The lesson of tonight is we have to play for a full 40 minutes." – Head Coach King Rice

-Micah Seaborn became the fourth fastest Hawk to score 1,000 career points, doing so at 6:41 of the first half in his 75^th career game.
-Seaborn scored 20+ points for the second game in a row, finishing with 23.
-Seaborn made his first eight shots of the night.
-Zac Tillman worked into double figures for the third game in a row for the first time in his career.
-Austin Tilghman scored into doubles for the third time in five games, ending up with 14 points.
-George Papas made his first career start.
-Monmouth has now started eight different lineups through nine games.
-Monmouth shot 58.6%, its highest mark of the season.

NUMBERS CRUNCH
-MU outshot Hofstra 58.6% to 45.5%.
-Monmouth outrebounded the Pride by a 34-32 count.
-Justin Wright-Foreman scored a game-high 24 points for Hofstra.
-MU topped Hofstra in the paint by a 34-20 mark.
-The Blue and White were better than Hofstra off the bench by a 54-20 margin.

UP NEXT
-Monmouth will play #7/8 Kentucky at Madison Square Garden in New York City on Saturday afternoon. Tip on ESPNU is set for 12:00 p.m.