WEST LONG BRANCH, NJ – For the second consecutive weekend, the Monmouth University Men's Basketball team (7-4, 7-3 MAAC) defended home court with a MAAC sweep, as the Hawks completed the weekend Saturday by topping Quinnipiac University (3-5, 1-3 MAAC) 70-63 behind 13 points from George Papas (Jersey City, NJ/Union Catholic).

MU led by as many as nine in the early stages of the second half, but Quinnipiac battled back and tied it with a 5-0 run at 6:52. MU took the lead back on consecutive buckets from Samuel Chaput (Longueuil, Quebec/Saint Anthony's [TX]) and Marcus McClary (Linden, NJ/The Patrick School) and didn't look back, using a 9-0 run with triples from Deion Hammond (Mitchellville, MD/Riverdale Baptist School) and Melik Martin (York, PA/York Catholic) to led by 11 before icing it on the foul line.

Quinnipiac scored the first five, but Monmouth scored the next nine to take the lead, and MU would not trail for the remainder of the opening half. The Hawk lead grew to nine after four straight layups, two coming from Myles Foster (Brooklyn, NY/Brooks School), but QU battled back and was able to get even from the foul line at the 1:04 mark. Donovann Toatley (Largo, MD/Riverdale Baptist School/Chattanooga) scored the final five Hawk points of the half to send MU into the locker room up two, 35-33.

NOTES AND QUOTES

"I think today our numbers, we were able to use some other guys for longer stretches and I think it gave us just enough to be able to win the game." – King Rice

"We all know we have a lot of options on offense, so that's not our main concern as much as the defensive end and taking care of things over there and when that happens we can create more offense." – George Papas

-Monmouth has won four in a row, and swept a MAAC weekend for the third time this season and second week in a row.
-MU is the first MAAC team to reach seven wins this year.
-George Papas scored in double figures for the seventh time this year and 20^th time in his career.
-Deion Hammond finished with eight points, his first game outside of double digits this season and first since February 21, 2020 at Marist.
-Hammond was held outside of double figures for just the fifth time in the last two seasons.
-Myles Ruth tied his career highs with eight points and four steals.
-Myles Foster topped a career-best with six rebounds, all coming in the opening half.
-Jarvis Vaughan returned from injury for the first time since 12/28.

NUMBERS CRUNCH
-Monmouth outrebounded Quinnipiac 48-42.
-The Hawks limited QU to 33.3% from the field and 30% from beyond the arc.
-MU forced 15 QU turnovers, bringing the weekend total to 42.
-The Hawks outran QU on the fast break, 26-7.
-Quinnipiac was led by Jacob Rigoni's 19 points on 4 threes.

UP NEXT
-Monmouth heads to Manhattan next weekend, and will take on the Jaspers on Friday at 6:00 p.m. from Draddy Gymnasium.