ALBANY, NY – Monmouth University Men's Basketball (12-21) took the lead with 2:17 to go over Niagara (13-19) and never relinquished it, getting two critical defensive stops late to move to the MAAC quarterfinals by a 76-72 count at the Times Union Center late Thursday night. Ray Salnave (Elmont, NY/Benjamin N. Cardozo) led the way with 20 points, while Diago Quinn (New York, NY/Lake Forest Academy) pitched in with 14 points, nine rebounds and three blocks.

Tied at 69 in the closing minutes, Salnave's floater put MU up two before Louie Pillari (Tinton Falls, NJ/Christian Brothers Academy) knocked in two of his season-high 15 with a long jumper to go up four. The advantage grew to five after Salnave split a pair of foul shots, but Raheem Solomon answered with a triple to make it 74-72. Following a pair of turnovers, Marcus McClary (Linden, NJ/The Patrick School) split a pair to put the Hawks up three before Marvin Prochet's triple for the tie rimmed out and Nick Rutherford (Indianapolis, IN/Allen/Florida Atlantic) made it 76-72 from the stripe, the eventual final.

Neither team led by more than four the entire second half, and the game was tied 11 different times in the final 20 minutes. Solomon hit an early three for Niagara to make it a three-point Purple Eagles lead, and MU responded to go up four on Rutherford's breakaway layup, plus the foul before the Hawks held on down the stretch.

Mustapha Traore (Philadelphia, PA/Phelps School) and Raheem Solomon combined to score the first 12 points of the game, six apiece to open things up. Niagara's largest lead of the opening half was seven coming after a pair of Marvin Prochet foul shots at 9:44 after Marcus Hammond hit a three on the prior possession. MU battled back and hit consecutive threes up to the 4:36 mark to take a pair of leads, and after the Purple Eagles took a late four-point lead, Monmouth scored the last two buckets to tie things at the break.

NOTES AND QUOTES
"Give Niagara a lot of credit, we played them earlier in the year, Coach Casey and I have become really close friends and they really gave it to us up there at Niagara when we played up there. I had all kinds of worries about this game and it came down to the last couple of minutes. We made one or two more plays than they did so I would say it was two even teams that played a solid college basketball game and we were very fortunate." – Head Coach King Rice

"There was times where it looked shaky but we stayed together, we got key stops when we needed to get stops. Louie came up big for us tonight and there's no better time than March to have a game like that, especially when we win." – Guard Ray Salnave

-Monmouth has now advanced to the quarterfinals or better in four of its six seasons in the league.
-MU won its first MAAC Tournament game since 2017, also against Niagara.
-King Rice won his 129^th career game, tying former MU Head Coach Ron Kornegay for fourth all time.
-Rice is now 5-5 in MAAC Tournament games.
-Louie Pillari has now scored 38 points in four career MAAC Tournament games.
-Diago Quinn has totaled 34 points and 20 rebounds in seven career MAAC Tournament games.
-Nick Rutherford and Sam Chaput were the only two Hawks to make their MAAC Tourney debuts.
-Ray Salnave posted his fifth 20+ point game and fourth of the season, doing so for the first time since January 10 at Quinnipiac.
-Mustapha Traore netted his first career MAAC Tournament points, scoring Monmouth's first six of the night.
-Diago Quinn grabbed nine rebounds for the sixth time this season.
-Quinn blocked three shots, tying a career-high.
-Louie Pillari's 15 points and six made field goals marked season highs.
-Melik Martin's six rebounds was a season high.
-Nick Rutherford collected at least four steals for the fifth time this year.
-Monmouth took on Niagara in the MAAC Tournament for the second time, and first since March 3, 2017, an 84-59 MU win.
-Monmouth was tied at the half for the third time this season, and moved to (1-2) in those games. All three of those games came against the Buffalo schools (Canisius 2x, Niagara).

NUMBERS CRUNCH
-MU outshot Niagara 45.9% to 39.2%.
-The Hawks outrebounded the Purple Eagles, 36-33.
-MU dominated in the paint, 36-14.
-The Hawks bench topped Niagara's, 28-10.
-Niagara was led by 24 points from Raheem Solomon, while Marvin Prochet notched a double-double.

UP NEXT
-Monmouth takes on #3 Quinnipiac in the quarterfinals on Saturday at 7:00 p.m. in Albany, NY.