POUGHKEEPSIE, NY – Monmouth University Men's Basketball (15-11, 9-6 MAAC) picked up an important MAAC road win on Friday night, topping Marist College (6-18, 5-10) in overtime, 65-61. Ray Salnave (Elmont, NY/Benjamin N. Cardozo) led three Hawks in double figures with 13 points.

George Papas (Jersey City, NJ/Union Catholic) gave Monmouth a four-point lead in overtime, scoring on an acrobatic layup before a pair of free throws made it 62-58. A Tyler Sagl three put Marist within one, but MU made three-of-four free throws inside of 30 seconds and got a critical pair of stops late to secure the win.

Monmouth grew its second half lead to as many as 12 with an 11-0 run that included an athletic spin move in the lane from Melik Martin (York, PA/York Catholic) before Martin canned a three. Marist used a 9-0 run of their own to take the lead on a Jordan Jones hook shot at 4:45. The Blue and White regained the lead when Nikkei Rutty (New Rochelle, NY/Trinity-Pawling) finished at the rim and were up three when Matt Herasme tied things at 1:36. Herasme struck again, this time from the right corner with a three with 18 seconds to go to put the Red Foxes on top, but Salnave was fouled taking a three and tied it from the line to send the game to the extra session.

A low-scoring opening half saw neither team lead by more than two until 11:57, when Tyler Sagl's three put Marist up five. Monmouth got the deficit to one point three separate times before Deion Hammond (Mitchellville, MD/Riverdale Baptist School) made a free throw at 4:48 to tie things at 19. Down three in the closing minutes of the period, Rutty used nice footwork to finish inside before Papas made a transition layup in the closing seconds to put the Hawks on top 23-22. Monmouth's defense did not allow a Red Foxes point for the last 4:16 of the half.

NOTES AND QUOTES

"Just another MAAC game. The tournaments going to be wild in Atlantic City, everybody should go out and get their tickets because every game goes like this. There's no blowouts everyone can win on any given night. John Dunne is a good friend of mine, what he's doing up here, they're going to be a problem so we'll take the win tonight." – Head Coach King Rice

"It was obvious that we needed a three to tie and I think the other player knew I was going to shoot a three. I knew I had him on his heels because I was driving at him and once he started backing up, I knew he thought I figured I would have enough room to shoot so I gave him a fake, leaned in and got the call." – Ray Salnave on his game-tying free throws late in regulation

-Melik Martin posted back-to-back games in double digits for the first time this season.
-Monmouth limited Marist to only four two-point field goals, two per half.
-MU played at Marist for the first time in 1,116 days, over three years, dating back to January 30, 2017.
-MU played its first overtime game since January 14, 2019 at Siena.
- Ray Salnave has now scored to tie or put Monmouth up in the final 15 seconds of regulation or overtime 10  times in his career, with seven of them coming on the road (2017 at Siena - tie, 2018 at Hofstra – tie, 2018 at Penn – tie, 2018 at Penn – win, 2019 at Quinnipiac – tie, 2019 vs. Iona – win, 2019 at Princeton – tie, 2019 at Princeton – win, 2019 vs. UAlbany – win, 2020 at Marist - win).

NUMBERS CRUNCH
-Monmouth's defense limited Marist to 32.7% from the field.
-Each team grabbed 41 rebounds.
-The Hawks dominated the paint to the tune of 36-8.
-MU was better off the bench 32-16.
-The Hawks forced 21 Marist turnovers.
-Tyler Sagl led all scorers with 16 points.

UP NEXT
-Monmouth is back in action on Sunday against Quinnipiac on Sunday at 2:00 p.m. on the OceanFirst Bank Center on ESPN+.