LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ – Monmouth battled back to within five several times in the final minutes, but Rider held off the Hawks comeback bid to secure a 92-85 win at Alumni Gym on Monday night. Austin Tilghman (Wilmington, DE/Archbishop Carroll) converted his second double-double in as many games and Ray Salnave (Elmont, NY/Benjamin N. Cardozo) poured in a career-best 19 points in the defeat.

Rider took its largest lead of the game at 20 in the early part of the second half, and led by as much as 18 with 10:40 to go after Tyrei Randall hit a three. Louie Pillari (Tinton Falls, NJ/Christian Brothers Academy) splashed a three to get the Hawks within 10 at 7:45, and dashed to the rim moments later to get MU within single digits. The Hawks' next bucket saw Deion Hammond (Mitchellville, MD/Riverdale Baptist) knock in a wing three to get Monmouth within five, but Jordan Allen's hot shooting put the Broncs back up nine a short time later. Down six with 1:40 to go, Melik Martin (York, PA/York Catholic) deflected a pass in the backcourt that Tilghman nearly converted for an and-one opportunity that would have gotten Monmouth within four. The shot fell off and Tilghman split the pair, leaving the visitors down five before Rider converted foul shots to lock down the win.

In the opening half, Rider jumped to a nine-point lead before the Hawks were able to work it down to three with a pair of Tilghman foul shots at 3:33. Dimencio Vaughn answered with a triple, starting a Rider run to end the half that turned out to be 12-2. Allen converted a three inside the final minute to make it a nine-point game, and with two seconds to go, Vaughn split a pair of foul shots. However, Rider stole the inbounds pass and Allen knocked in a buzzer-beating three to make it 46-33 Broncs at the break.

NOTES AND QUOTES
"If that team wasn't together maybe we come back. But they were together, and they fought for each other and that's just a credit to Kevin Baggett's coaching." – King Rice on Rider

"Tonight I told my kids that I don't like losing, but I was more proud of this team right here because we could have hung our heads. We got down, their crowd got loud and I thought one, maybe two more plays and we could have gotten over the hump but they made big shot after big shot so credit to them." –King Rice

"We were just moving too fast, and Coach Rice is always telling us we have to slow down sometimes… some people will credit the fact that we're young so maybe we have to take things a little bit slower but we were just moving too fast, we just gave them the ball a couple times in the first half." – Ray Salnave

-Austin Tilghman picked up a double-double for the second game in a row, finishing with 18 points and 11 assists.
-Tilghman's 11 assists marked his third double-digit assist game this season, and his second most assists in a game for his career.
-Tilghman now has four double-doubles this season to lead Monmouth in the category.
-Ray Salnave scored a career-high 19 points, his third time in four games in double figures and sixth game overall.
-Mustapha Traore's seven rebounds were his most since 12/22 at Yale (10).
-Deion Hammond netted 17 points, his fourth game in a row in double figures.
-The loss was Monmouth's first in Lawrenceville since 2014, and first in regulation since joining the MAAC prior to that season.

NUMBERS CRUNCH
-Monmouth outran Rider 27-4 on the fast break.
-MU outscored Rider in the paint 42-26.
-The Hawks shot just 21.1% (4-17) from three, the lowest output of the season.
-Jordan Allen led all scorers with 26 points for Rider, hitting seven threes, the most by a Monmouth opponent this season.
-MU was outshot 48.3% to 46.8% on the game.
-Monmouth turned it over 15 times in the first half, but turned that around and gave it up just four times in the final 20 minutes.
-Monmouth is now 3-6 in the MAAC, while Rider improves to 9-2.
-Rider led for 36:39 on the night.

UP NEXT
-Monmouth is back home Friday night to take on Fairfield at 7:00 p.m. on ESPN3.