WEST LONG BRANCH, NJ – The Monmouth University Men's Basketball team (6-4, 6-3 MAAC) mounted a huge late game comeback, trailing by eight with under 90 seconds remaining, to force overtime and ultimately top Quinnipiac University (3-4, 1-2 MAAC) in overtime, 92-80 Friday. All four MU seniors scored in double figures, led by a career high 23 from Melik Martin (York, PA/York Catholic), while Marcus McClary (Linden, NJ/The Patrick School) hit the game-tying jumper with 0.6 seconds left in regulation.

After getting within four multiple times but no closer, Monmouth staged an enormous comeback in the final minutes. Down nine with under four minutes to go, Deion Hammond (Mitchellville, MD/Riverdale Baptist School) and George Papas (Jersey City, NJ/Union Catholic) converted consecutive threes to make it a three-point game, but QU answered with threes twice in a row to keep their lead at six and ultimately eight with 1:37 left. MU was able to get it to four before Martin hit a three with seven seconds left. After the Bobcats split a pair from the line, Monmouth got it to McClary on the baseline to knock down the game-tying jumper with 0.6 seconds to go and force overtime.

In the extra session, Martin took over for the Blue and White, hitting a three to tie the game before following a miss and converting a three-point play to put MU up. Up three in the final 90 seconds, McClary worked his way open in the corner and drilled a triple to ice the victory, as Hammond went 6-6 from the line in the final minute of the extra session.

Quinnipiac hit a three in the opening minute and continued their strong start, ultimately leading by 12 at the 8:11 mark of the opening half. MU used a 12-3 run that included triples from Papas and Sam Chaput (Longueuil, Quebec/Saint Anthony's [TX]) to trim it to three, but QU responded with the next nine to extend their edge back to 12. Ultimately, the Blue and White went into the half down seven, 35-28.

NOTES AND QUOTES
"We got it going and stole that game from them. I told my kids that it's easy to come back against somebody but it's hard to comeback all the way and get the win and our kids did that tonight. Sometimes the basketball gods are on your side, a couple balls bounce your way. It was a game we were lucky to get to overtime and then we get the win even after they scored the first basket in overtime. We're going to take that and try to be better tomorrow because they made us play this way." – King Rice

"We tried to get it spaced out and we had a bunch of options off of it. We would have been cool with Melik driving it there also. Today, Melik faked like he was going to go, Marcus kept moving, he's wide open, Seth Pinkney got very close to blocking it and it goes in. Our kids kept fighting and once again, seniors doing senior things." – Rice on McClary's game-tying jumper

"We knew they missed a free throw coming down so we knew we could get a layup, we didn't need a three, and Coach ran a play for Melik to come back and get the ball and make a play and he trusted his teammates, he trusted me and I hit the shot." – Marcus McClary


-All four MU seniors scored in double figures.
-Melik Martin scored a career-high 23 points to lead all scorers.
-MU moved to 4-1 in the opening game of a MAAC weekend.
-Deion Hammond's 21 points marked his 21^st career game with 20+ points.
-The Hawks topped the 90-point plateau for the first time this year.
-This was the Hawks' first overtime game of the year, and first since a 65-61 OT win at Marist on 2/21/20.
-The Hawks' 53 rebounds marked the most of the season for MU, and the most since November 14, 2017 when they also had 53 at Lehigh.
-Sam Chaput's seven assists are the most in a game by a Hawk this season
-MU trailed by 12 in the second half, nine with 4:13 left, eight with 1:30 left and four with 12 seconds to go and topped all those to force overtime.
-Nikkei Rutty's nine rebounds marked a season high for the junior.

NUMBERS CRUNCH
-MU outrebounded Quinnipiac 53-46.
-The Hawks shot just 34.6% from the field to QU's 41.5%.
-The teams combined to shoot 61 free throws.
-MU outran QU to a 31-20 pace.
-Jacob Rigoni led the Bobcats with 18 points, totaling a double-double in the contest.

UP NEXT
-Monmouth completes the weekend set with Quinnipiac tomorrow at 5:00 p.m. on ESPN+.