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Monmouth University Athletics

Deion Hammond vs Iona
Karlee Sell
76
Winner Iona ION 12-7, 6-1 MAAC
73
Monmouth MON 5-13, 1-5 MAAC
Winner
Iona ION
12-7, 6-1 MAAC
76
Final
73
Monmouth MON
5-13, 1-5 MAAC
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
Iona ION 42 34 76
Monmouth MON 34 39 73

Game Recap: Men's Basketball |

MONMOUTH TAKES IONA TO THE WIRE, FALLS 76-73

WEST LONG BRANCH, NJ – Monmouth battled back in the second half to lead in a game that featured nine lead changes, but were ultimately topped by Iona in the closing seconds in West Long Branch on Friday night. MU put three in double figures and led with 32 seconds to play before the Gaels scored the final four points of the night to pick up a road win.

Melik Martin (York, PA/York Catholic) hit a three from in front of his own bench at the 3:05 mark to put the Hawks up one, and after Iona tied it with 2:00 to play as Roland Griffin split a pair from the line, Martin converted a three-point play from the baseline late in the shot clock with 1:30 to go. Griffin cut it to one, and Iona rebounded a miss to allow EJ Crawford to put them up with 32 seconds remaining. Micah Seaborn's (Fort Worth, TX/Prime Prep Academy) jumper for the lead was off the mark, and after TK Edogi made it a three-point game from the stripe, Austin Tilghman (Wilmington, DE/Archbishop Carroll) saw his game-tying triple rim out as time expired.

Down eight to start the half, MU immediately cut into the lead and were able to get even on Deion Hammond (Mitchellville, MD/Riverdale Baptist)'s wing three at 13:45. Iona regained the lead, only to see Micah Seaborn drill a long three to put the Hawks back on top. Monmouth's second half lead was never more than three, but the Blue and White led into the closing minutes before Iona came out on top.

A back-and-forth first few minutes saw Iona go up five, only to have Ray Salnave (Elmont, NY/Benjamin N. Cardozo) score seven in a row to put the Hawks back up. Iona used a 19-6 run to take their largest lead of the game at 13, 42-29 with 53 seconds left in the opening half, but Salnave scored, plus the foul and then stole the ball and laid it in as time expired to trim the deficit to eight at the break.

NOTES AND QUOTES
"I want to give Iona a lot of credit tonight. Tim has challenged me and all the coaches in the league to continue to improve at our craft." – King Rice

"For my kids tonight, I think tonight was our closest to playing 40 minutes. I'm really proud of my kids tonight, I feel like we fought Iona to the end and they made a few extra plays down the stretch." – King Rice

"Ray came up huge, and there was a lot of guys that came through in this game. One thing we've struggled with is finishing games. Once we're able to finish games we'll be fine." –Austin Tilghman

-Ray Salnave netted 16 first-half points, two shy of a career-high to lead Monmouth.
-Salnave scored seven points in 35 seconds, and later scored five points in six seconds to end the half.
-Melik Martin scored 12 points, all in the second half, to come one point shy of a career best. It was Martin's second career game in double digits.
-Deion Hammond netted his 10th game of 10 or more points this season, finishing with 13 on 4-of-7 shooting.
-Austin Tilghman led Monmouth in rebounds with nine and assists with eight, marking the second game in a row and fourth time overall he has had nine or more boards this year.
-In his first game back from injury after missing three games, Micah Seaborn hit three triples and grabbed five rebounds, finishing with nine points.
-Of Monmouth's 13 losses, this was sixth by five points or less and fifth by just one possession.
-The attendance of 3,020 was the highest in West Long Branch since opening night.
-At halftime, former Monmouth player, assistant coach and head coach Dave Calloway was honored ahead of his induction this June into the Monmouth Athletics Hall of Fame.

NUMBERS CRUNCH
-Rickey McGill led four Gaels in double figures with a game-high 18 points.
-Monmouth outshot Iona 47.3% to 46.6%.
-The Hawks outscored the Gaels bench 28-20.
-MU limited Iona to 25% from deep in the second half.
-Each team led for over 15 total minutes in the game.
-Iona now leads the all-time series with MU 9-4.

UP NEXT
-Monmouth remains home to play Siena next Thursday on ESPN3 at 7:00 p.m.
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