ALBANY, NY – Monmouth University Men's Basketball (14-21) won three games in four days to reach the MAAC Championship Game but had the run stopped by Iona College (17-15) on Monday night in the title game at the Times Union Center, with the Gaels winning 81-60 to claim the 2019 MAAC Championship.

Back-to-back triples from lefties Marcus McClary (Linden, NJ/The Patrick School) and Nick Rutherford (Indianapolis, IN/Allen/Florida Atlantic) cut it to a three-point game early in the second half, but Iona hit a pair of threes in an 11-0 run to make it 52-38 at 14:41. MU scored to halt the stretch, only to see the Gaels score the next nine to lead by 21 with 12:00 remaining. Iona held that margin through the remainder of the half, with George Papas (Jersey City, NJ/Union Catholic) coming on late to knock in a pair of threes for the Blue and White.

After netting the first four points, Iona went on a 17-2 run to take an 11-point lead on Rickey McGill's triple, and extended it to a 12-point advantage at 12:45 on Tajuan Agee's layup. MU got back in it, rushing through a 6-0 run in the latter stages of the period with a pair of makes from Deion Hammond (Mitchellville, MD/Riverdale Baptist School) to trim it to three before a late triple from Agee made it 36-30 at the half.  

NOTES AND QUOTES
"Iona's a tough out. We've tried everything, and I have to give Coach Tim Cluess all the credit in the world again and I truly mean it. He's a super coach and really gets his kids to play together, more than most people… I thought we were going to get this today and I was way off on that. I thank Diago for choosing us and believing in what we were doing these last four years and I'm sorry that we couldn't get over the hump for him." – Head Coach King Rice

"It's a blessing that I've been able to play pretty much every game since I came here as a freshman, that's a blessing because not many people get to do that and that was one of my goals in high school, to play as soon as I got to college. This weekend, we knew we could get the first one and we kind of just rolled the wave of momentum and grew a belief in ourselves with each win and today we lost to a better team. That's the way it goes, those guys are going to learn from it and hopefully they'll be able to pull away with one in the future." – Senior Center Diago Quinn

-Deion Hammond and Diago Quinn were named to the MAAC All-Tournament Team.
-Monmouth played in its second MAAC title game in four years, both against Iona.
-Diago Quinn finished his career with his 25^th career double figure game, 17 of them coming this season.
-Quinn set the program's games played record with 136, passing teammate Chris Brady.
-Quinn finishes his career eighth all-time in blocks and 10^th in total rebounds.
-Ray Salnave finished the year four points ahead of Deion Hammond for the team scoring lead, playing a total of five more minutes than Hammond over the course of the season.
-Diago Quinn led MU in rebounding for the year with 5.9 per game.
-Sam Ibiezugbe tied a career-high with six rebounds.
-Every Hawk on the roster saw action in the game.

NUMBERS CRUNCH
-Monmouth was outshot 46.2% to 43.1%.
-MU and Iona each grabbed 43 rebounds.
-Monmouth's bench outscored Iona's 24-2.
-The Hawks outscored the Gaels in the paint, 34-20.
-Iona was led by 22 points from Asante Gist, topping five in double figures.

UP NEXT
-Monmouth concludes the 2018-19 season with a record of 14-21, having qualified for the second MAAC championship game in program history.