WEST LONG BRANCH, NJ – Marcus McClary (Linden, NJ/The Patrick School) collected his first career double-double, and Ray Salnave (Elmont, NY/Benjamin N. Cardozo) led the Hawks with 20 points as Monmouth University Men's Basketball (9-7, 3-2 MAAC) led for over 36 minutes in topping Marist College (2-13, 1-5 MAAC) 74-66 Thursday.

MU kept Marist at a double-digit deficit the majority of the period, and a pair of Salnave foul shots made it an 18-point lead with 4:37 left. The Red Foxes responded with a 10-1 run to trim it to nine, and Marist kept the pressure on but MU knocked down key free throws down the stretch to secure the win.

Monmouth hit its first six shots en route to building a 10-point lead behind a quick pair of Hammond triples. Tyler Saint-Furcy's three at 6:36 got Marist within six, but a 14-5 push to close the half put MU up 15. Inside the final minute, it was Deion Hammond (Mitchellville, MD/Riverdale Baptist School) drilling a three before Salnave beat the buzzer on a running floater to make it 39-24 headed to the locker room.

NOTES AND QUOTES
"The league is very evenly matched this year and I told my guys, every night if you don't play 40 minutes someone can knock you off and Marist just kept coming and coming and we were fortunate enough to get it done." – Head Coach King Rice

"Marist is a good team with a good coach so we just wanted to play hard and play good defense down the stretch and we got it done." – Junior guard Marcus McClary

-Marcus McClary grabbed a career best 11 rebounds, with eight coming in the first half.
-McClary notched his first career double-double, and his fifth career contest in double digits.
-Ray Salnave notched 20+ points for the 10^th time in his career and fifth this season.
-MU is now 6-0 at home.
-King Rice picked up his 140^th career win, moving him to .500 in his career.
-Hammond scored in double digits for the 54^th time in his career and 12^th this season.
-Deion Hammond was honored pregame after becoming the seventh fastest player in program history to reach the 1,000 point mark.

NUMBERS CRUNCH
-MU outshot Marist 38.9% to 35.1%.
-Monmouth limited Marist to 24 first-half points.
-The Hawks were better on the fast break, 23-5.
-MU led for the final 36:40 of the night.
-Marist was led by 17 points from freshman Tyler Saint-Furcy.

UP NEXT
-Monmouth heads to Riverdale, NY on Saturday night for a matchup with Manhattan at 7:00 p.m. The game will air on ESPN+ and on the radio via the Shore Sports Network.