BUFFALO, NY – Monmouth University Men's Basketball (14-10, 8-5 MAAC) scored 55 second-half points and got a career-high 32 points and seven threes from George Papas (Jersey City, NJ/Union Catholic) in beating Canisius College (9-16, 4-10 MAAC) in Buffalo on Friday night, 85-71.

Canisius' lead grew to eight in the early second half, but it took the Hawks just 4:07 to get the lead on a Marcus McClary (Linden, NJ/The Patrick School) and one. That's when Papas got hot, hitting two quick threes to put MU up seven.  Majesty Brandon scored at the rim to trim it to two before Monmouth got contributions from six players in the scoring column, capped by a Nikkei Rutty dunk at 5:26. Monmouth continued to add to the lead, going up by as many as 15 when Papas crossed the 30-point threshold from the foul line.

The teams traded baskets in the early stages, with neither leading by one than one possession for the first 12:43. After a Papas three put the Hawks up 17-14 at 10:31, Canisius scored the next 13 to lead 27-17. Monmouth cut back into that lead thanks in part to Papas' strong half, with the junior connecting from deep late in the period to cut it to three. Jacco Fritz capped the period for the home team with a wing three to make it 36-30 at the break.

NOTES AND QUOTES

"This was a really big win for us especially coming off two losses. We had some great practices this week, very intense. We just needed to get everybody's attention again so we could play Monmouth Basketball. Tonight, we played harder, Canisius played super hard too but we played harder. We stayed together which we haven't done all the time this year." – Head Coach King Rice

"George is one of the most incredible shooters, it doesn't matter what level. If you watch him work out, he makes them all the time. It's a confidence thing. George has to always think if he gets a chance to shoot its going in, and tonight he felt it and that thing was going in like it always does. All credit to him, nobody works harder and he's proved himself at this level." – Rice on George Papas


-George Papas became the 50^th player in Monmouth Basketball history to score 30+ points in a game.
-Papas is the fifth MU player in the King Rice era to score over 30 in a game (Justin Robinson 3x, Andrew Nicholas 2x, Micah Seaborn 1x, Deion Hammond 1x).
-This marks the second consecutive game that Monmouth has had a 30+ point scorer (Deion Hammond vs. Saint Peter's).
-Papas seven threes is the 11^th such game in program history and the third most made threes in a game by a Hawk.
-There have now been five games in the King Rice era where a Hawk hits seven or more threes (Justin Robinson 3x, Micah Seaborn 1x, George Papas 1x).
-Monmouth's 55 second-half points is the most by Monmouth this season.
-George Papas now has eight career double figure games, with six coming this season.
-Ray Salnave posted his ninth double-digit game in a row.
-Deion Hammond netted double figures for the 10^th straight game.
-MU snapped its first two-game MAAC losing streak of the year.

NUMBERS CRUNCH
-Monmouth outshot Canisius 49.1% to 40.3%.
-The Hawks were better off turnovers (25-10), off the bench (40-28) and on the fast break (22-2).
-MU forced 15 Golden Griffin turnovers.
-Monmouth led for 20:09 of the game.
-Canisius was led by 18 Malik Johnson points.

UP NEXT
-Monmouth is back in action on Sunday at Niagara. Tip is set for 1:00 p.m. on ESPN3, the Watch ESPN app and on the radio via the Shore Sports Network.