MYRTLE BEACH, SC – Monmouth Men's Basketball was defeated on the second day of the Myrtle Beach Invitational by Valparaiso at the HTC Center, 64-53. Mustapha Traore (Philadelphia, PA/The Phelps School) was a perfect 7-for-7 from the floor, finishing with a career-high 14 points.

The Crusaders lead never grew larger than 12 throughout the first half of the second period, with Monmouth eventually cutting it to nine at 8:56 on a Melik Martin (York, PA/York Catholic) finish at the rim. Deion Hammond (Mitchellville, MD/Riverdale Baptist School) knocked in a three to make it a seven-point game, but Valpo responded, ultimately winning by 11.

Valparaiso jumped to a 10-point first half lead before the Hawks came back to trim it to three following a Ray Salnave (Elmont, NY/Benjamin N. Cardozo) triple. A late baseline jumper from Salnave had MU within six headed to the locker room, with Martin becoming the second Hawk in as many days to come within inches of a buzzer beating half-court shot.

NOTES AND QUOTES
"Very tough night for us. You take your hats off to Valpo, I figured somebody would grab a hold of this game with two teams playing after hard fought games yesterday. Kids come in and they're fired up and when you don't win that first one, this next game is so important. I think both teams started a little bit slow but they grabbed a hold of the game and once they did that, there wasn't much we could do." – Head Coach King Rice

-King Rice rolled with the same starting lineup for the third game in a row.
-Mike James Jr. saw his first career minutes in a Monmouth uniform.
-Mustapha Traore scored a career-high 14 points on a career-best seven made field goals.
-Traore has now gone into double figures twice in three games, and five times overall in his career.
-Traore's perfect 7-for-7 is the most makes for a Hawk without a miss since Je'lon Hornbeak was 7-for-7 in the 2016 MAAC Championship game against Iona.
-Monmouth took on Valparaiso for the first time.
-MU now 1-1 against current Missouri Valley Conference members, with the only other contest coming in a win Southern Illinois in the 2005 Great Alaska Shootout.

NUMBERS CRUNCH
-MU held Valpo to 21% from 3 in the opening half.
-Monmouth outscored Valparaiso's bench 15-12.
-MU won the turnover battle 18-12.
-Deion Lavender scored a game-high 15 points for Valpo.

UP NEXT
-Monmouth wraps up the 2018 Myrtle Beach Invitational on Sunday at 12:30 against Cal State Fullerton.