NEW ROCHELLE, NY – Monmouth University Men's Basketball got a pair of 20+ point performances, including a career-best 20 points from center Diago Quinn (New York, NY/Lake Forest Academy) but it was not enough to overcome the three-point shooting of Iona College. The Gaels took the MAAC opener Thursday night at Hynes Center, 103-84 to move to 3-9 overall and 1-0 in the MAAC. MU dropped to 1-13, 0-1 in league play.

Iona led by as many as 28 in the second half, but MU got 15 points from Deion Hammond (Mitchellville, MD/Riverdale Baptist School) in the final 20 minutes as well as seven of his career-high nine points on the night from freshman guard Samuel Chaput (Longueuil, Quebec/Saint Anthony's (TX)). MU held Iona without a field goal in the final 5:05 before the Gaels finished off the 19-point victory.

Iona used 11 first-half triples to build the lead, going up as many as many as 18 in the opening 20 minutes. Jonathan Maxwell made four first-half threes, but MU cut into the lead late, trimming the halftime deficit to 12 when Trevon Gross, Jr. (Jackson, NJ/St. Benedict's Prep/Virginia) hit a corner three with 15 seconds to go. The Gaels entered the locker room with a 52-40 edge.

NOTES AND QUOTES
"Tough night for our team, take your hat off to Iona. I watched a lot of tape of those guys and they played extremely well tonight and shot the ball well tonight. We didn't give them much resistance but they just overwhelmed us and got such a big lead that we struggled to get our footing." – Head Coach King Rice

"I'm super excited for Diago. He struggled early in the year and it's like he's got the senior 'I'm supposed to be a main contributor' thing going right now and he's really turned it on since we got back from Christmas. It hasn't just been in the last two games, it's been in pretty much every practice so hopefully down the stretch, these last 17 games that we have, he can be a major guy." -King Rice on Diago Quinn after the center posted a career-high in points in two straight games 

-Monmouth topped a season high with 83 points scored.
-Diago Quinn set a career-high for the second consecutive game, scoring 20 points.
-Deion Hammond's 22 points are his most on the season and his third career 20+ point game. It is the second highest output of the guard's career.
-Samuel Chaput netted a career-best nine points, the most by a Hawk freshman this season. 
-George Papas' eight points were a season high.
-Diago Quinn scored in double figures in the first half for the second game in a row.
-Quinn's seven made field goals tied a career-high, set last November 14 at Lehigh.
-All 15 Hawks on the roster saw the floor for the first time tonight.
-Trevon Gross, Jr. put home his first three since 11/12 at Saint Joseph's.
-Dave Calloway, Jr. scored for the third time in a game this season, knocking in his first career free throw. 
-Mike James, Jr. collected his first career assist.
-Ray Salnave was held outside double figures for the first time in five games.
-MU had a three-game winning streak at Hynes Center snapped.
-The Hawks are now 5-10 all time against Iona, and 5-8 in MAAC play.

NUMBERS CRUNCH
-Iona outshot Monmouth 58% to 47%.
-Monmouth scored 54 points off the bench compared to Iona's 19.
-MU topped Iona in points in the paint, 32-24.
-Monmouth tied a season low with 10 turnovers.
-Rickey McGill led all scorers with 27 points for Iona, leading five Gaels in double figures.

UP NEXT
-Monmouth is back home Saturday to continue MAAC play at 2:00 p.m. against Saint Peter's on ESPN3 and the WatchESPN app.