ALBANY, NY – Monmouth University men's basketball won an entertaining MAAC affair over Siena College on Monday night, 63-60 in overtime for the Hawks' second straight win and third MAAC victory. Three Hawks reached double figures including Deion Hammond (Mitchellville, MD/Riverdale Baptist School), while a trio of Hawks grabbed at least eight rebounds in the win. MU improves to 4-14, 3-2 in the MAAC while Siena falls to 6-11, 1-3 in conference.

Monmouth took a four-point lead in overtime after a pair of Nick Rutherford (Indianapolis, IN/Allen/Florida Atlantic) free throws and a Diago Quinn (New York, NY/Lake Forest Academy) finish at the right of the rim. Siena's Kevin Degnan answered with a three to cut it to one, and the Saints sent Evan Fisher to the stripe with just over eight seconds left in a one-point game. He missed both, and Sam Chaput (Longueuil, Quebec/Saint Anthony's (TX)) grabbed a long rebound and was able to run clock off before being fouled with 1.1 seconds left. He sank both free throws and Siena didn't get a shot off, securing Monmouth's win.

The second half saw MU take an early 12 point advantage, only for Siena to answer with a 15-0 run to go up by three. After MU halted that run, the teams were within one possession the rest of the way, with Hammond hitting a game-tying three and then another one to put the Hawks ahead with 1:36 to play. The Hawks added two points from the foul line into the final seconds, when Sloan Seymour banked in a three to tie the game and send it to overtime.

Jalen Pickett knocked down four early triples to stake Siena to a quick 20-10 lead in a fast-moving first half, but the Hawks responded with a 10-0 run of their own to tie the game. Hammond scored eight of those points thanks to a pair of long balls to get the game even. The Saints regained a 27-22 lead before MU closed out the half on a 12-0 run, getting seven Quinn points and a Chaput three to take a seven-point edge into the locker room.

NOTES AND QUOTES
"Competing against [Siena Head Coach] Jamion [Christian] is going to be tough, it's going to be fun, he's such a bright young basketball coach. Today, I'm so happy for my kids because the way the game started, their kid hits four threes and we told them don't hang your heads, stay in there and just keep encouraging each other and then our kids got going a little bit. I thought the big key was Nick Rutherford and Sam Chaput because when we started trapping and going after their point guard the game changed." – Head Coach King Rice

"It was really huge. We had a double overtime game last week that we fell short in and when we went into overtime we were saying we had to hold on and get this one. It's the first time we got two back-to-back all season so this was a huge one. " – Guard Nick Rutherford

-Monmouth has won five consecutive regular season games at the Times Union Center.
-MU has played overtime in three of its last six games, going 2-1 in those.
-The Hawks are now over .500 in MAAC play for the first time since the 2017 regular season finale, a win at Iona.
-The Hawks won their second game in a row for the first time this year.
-Monmouth has now beaten Siena nine straight times in the regular season.
-The Hawks are 8-2 overall against the Saints since joining the MAAC in 2013.
-Ray Salnave scored into double figures for the third game in a row and seventh time in nine games.
-Salnave's perfect 8-8 from the free throw line is the most makes by a Hawk this year without a miss.
-Deion Hammond's 16 points marked his 10^th double-digit scoring game of the year.
-Mustapha Traore's three steals were a career-high.
-Rutherford tied his high in a Monmouth uniform with eight rebounds.
-Quinn's nine rebounds were his second highest output of the year.
-Quinn scored in double figures for the fifth time in six games and sixth time overall this season.
-Chaput knocked in his second triple of the season.
-Monmouth posted runs of 10-0 and 12-0 separately in the first half.

NUMBERS CRUNCH
-Monmouth outrebounded Siena 36-30.
-The Hawks outscored Siena in the paint 22-14.
-MU's bench topped Siena's, 13-7.
-Five Hawks played over 30 minutes in the game.
-MU shot 82.4% from the free throw line, missing just three of 17 attempts.

UP NEXT
-Monmouth hosts Fairfield on Thursday night at 7:00 p.m. on ESPN3.