NEW ROCHELLE, NY – Monmouth dominated Iona on Thursday night to pick up its first MAAC road win of the season, topping the Gaels 72-50 at the Hynes Center. Louie Pillari (Tinton Falls, NJ/Christian Brothers Academy) led the Hawks with 21 points as MU held Iona to just 50 points, the lowest MU has allowed this season.

The Hawks never allowed Iona to get closer than 12 in the second period, extending the lead to as large as 24 when Ray Salnave (Elmont, NY/Benjamin N. Cardozo) scored five in a row into the 8:50 mark, forcing another timeout from Tim Cluess. MU held serve and played strong defense down the stretch, leading by 20 or more for the final 10:04 of the game.

Monmouth led for the final 33:47 following Austin Tilghman (Wilmington, DE/Archbishop Carroll)'s long jumper to put the Hawks up 11-10. MU followed with a 16-5 run that was capped by consecutive triples out of the hands of Deion Hammond (Mitchellville, MD/Riverdale Baptist), forcing an Iona timeout with 8:10 to go in the opening half and MU up 23-12. The Gaels trimmed it to as little as seven out of the timeout before MU went on a 13-1 run to finish the half, going up as many as 19 and taking a 41-24 lead to the break.

NOTES AND QUOTES

"You can't ever go into the Iona game and expect to get away from them… I think tonight our kids were super ready and I don't want to take any credit from our kids but Iona didn't have their best night tonight. We're super happy to have that win, we're humbled and any time you can get a win against Iona it's a big one."- King Rice

"We were fortunate that we were able to play for a full 40 minutes tonight. We have not played that well for 40 minutes in a long time, maybe the Bucknell game but our kids were in, they were bought in on defense, they were talking and we've been working on that a lot but it really came together tonight." – Rice

"It always feels good to get a win. I think one of the things we did well today is we limited those guys to one shot. I think with this Iona team or with any team if we limit guys to one shot we have guys that will get out on the fast break and that's what we're most dangerous at. We were able to get stops and limit them to one shot and control our offense and the tempo and we played our pace which really worked well for us tonight." – Austin Tilghman

-Louie Pillari was Monmouth's lone double-digit scorer, posting his second career 20+ point game with 21 points.
-The last time MU won a game with just one double-digit scorer came on 11/22/16 in a 76-61 home win over Cornell. Justin Robinson was the lone Hawk in doubles with 19 points.
-Monmouth held Iona to 32.8% from the field, the Gaels' lowest shooting percentage of the year.
-Tim Cluess has posted a 60-11 mark at home in his time as Iona's head coach, with three of those losses coming to Monmouth.
-The 50 points Iona scored marked Monmouth's best defensive effort of the season and best since allowing 49 to Fairfield on 1/22/17.
-The 22-point margin is the largest by either team in the Monmouth-Iona series.
-The 22-point win is MU's biggest of the season, and largest margin since a 25-point win over Niagara in last year's MAAC quarterfinals.
-Melik Martin dished out a career-best five assists.
-Pillari's six rebounds marked a career-high.
-Dan Pillari netted his first points since 12/9 against Kentucky with a pair of free throws.
-Zac Tillman blocked three shots, a career-high and the most by a Hawk this season.
-Monmouth limited Iona to 24 first-half points, the lowest by a Hawks opponent in the first 20 minutes this year.
-Monmouth limited Iona to 21.9% from three, the best defensive effort against the three this season.
-MU led for the final 33:47 of the game after going up 11-10.
-The Hawks have won three in a row at the Hynes Center.
-MU is now 5-9 all-time against Iona and 5-7 since joining the MAAC.
-Monmouth led by 20 or more points for the final 10:04 of the game.

NUMBERS CRUNCH
-The Blue and White outrebounded Iona 44-32.
-MU outplayed Iona in the paint 32-24.
-The Hawks led Iona in every extra category, including points in the paint, points off turnovers, second chance points, fast break points and points off the bench.
-Seven Hawks also grabbed four or more rebounds.
-Seven different Hawks scored six or more points.
-Monmouth improves to 4-8 in the MAAC, while Iona is now 9-4.

UP NEXT
-Monmouth takes on Manhattan on Saturday night on ESPN3 at 7:00 p.m.