WEST LONG BRANCH, NJ - Monmouth University Men's Basketball (17-12, 11-7 MAAC) never trailed and put three in double figures on Sunday, topping Manhattan College (12-15, 8-10 MAAC) 80-60. With the win, MU clinched a first-round bye in the upcoming MAAC Tournament.

After the Jaspers trimmed it to six at 16:27, Monmouth ripped off 10 of the next 12, including seven straight from Deion Hammond (Mitchellville, MD/Riverdale Baptist School) featuring a three and a transition dunk. With the margin at 10, the Hawks pulled away, using a 10-1 run to lead by 19. The margin grew as large as 25 when Gob Gabriel (Manchester, NH/Bradford Christian Academy) netted a pair of foul shots, with MU eventually winning by 20.

Monmouth never trailed in the opening half, leaping to an eight-point lead before the first media timeout after four quick points each from Mustapha Traore (Philadelphia, PA/The Phelps School) and Sam Chaput (Longueuil, Quebec/Saint Anthony's [TX]). The Hawks then strung together a 12-0 run to lead by 18 at 8:49, getting threes in that stretch from George Papas (Jersey City, NJ/Union Catholic) and Gabriel. Manhattan cut into the lead late in the half, eventually whittling it to eight on a Warren Williams turnaround in the closing seconds.

NOTES AND QUOTES
"That feels a lot better than it did the other night. I thought Mustapha had a great bounce back game. I think Manhattan's plan was to go inside after Rider had success against us doing that, and Mustapha did a great job standing up to it. I thought our team defense was tremendous early and then it picked up again and dominated the second half." – Head Coach King Rice

"I felt bad about the Rider loss so I put a lot of pressure on myself today. I came in this morning at about 8:00 to start shooting to try to get myself going because I knew it was a game we needed to win." – Mustapha Traore

-Monmouth clinches a bye in the upcoming MAAC Tournament, securing at least a top-five seed.
-MU shot 51% from the field, a season high.
-Traore's 14 points is the second highest output of the season for him.
-Traore's 6-6 from the field is the most makes without a miss this season, and most since he went 7-7 against Valparaiso in Myrtle Beach on 11/16/18.
-Monmouth is now outscoring its opponents for the season for the first time since opening night.
-Deion Hammond scored in double digits for the 70^th time in his career.
-Melik Martin netted double digits in scoring for the fourth time in five games.
-Gob Gabriel scored a career high seven points.
-Gob Gabriel made a three for the third consecutive game.

NUMBERS CRUNCH
-Monmouth outshot Manhattan 51% to 41.5% from the field.
-The Hawks outrebounded the Jaspers 38-32.
-MU was better off the bench 31-20.
-MU led for 39:45 after netting the first basket on their first possession.
-Manhattan was led by 13 points apiece from Warren Williams and Christian Hinckson.

UP NEXT
-Monmouth hosts Fairfield on Wednesday night at 7:00 p.m. on ESPN3.