TOWSON, MD – Monmouth University Men's Basketball (1-1) got 22 points from George Papas on top of a career-best 16 from Marcus McClary, using a hot start to pick up the first win of the season Saturday night at Towson University (1-1), 79-71. MU never trailed in the game, opening with the first 17 points of the contest.
 
MU opened the second half with the same strong defense they did in the first, accumulating stops while allowing just two field goals in the first 8:20 of the period. The Hawks built the lead to as much as 22 with 6:48 remaining before a 17-0 Tigers run cut into that. MU knocked in nine free throws in the final 2:30 to secure the road win.
 
Monmouth scored the first 17 points of the game and led by as many as 23 when the score reached 24-1 in the opening half. Towson did not register a point against the MU defense until a free throw 6:29 in, and didn't make a field goal until 8:34 into the contest. Towson was able to chip the deficit all the way to two before MU closed the opening half on a 10-0 run that included five free throws and a Papas triple to lead by 12, 43-31 at the break.
 
NOTES AND QUOTES
 
"That was a crazy game. Lot of fun to be in, I kept saying I couldn't believe these guys kept coming back, you have to give Pat Skerry and the kids at Towson a lot of credit. We're fortunate to get this win playing against a CAA team on their home floor this early in this year, you have to be super excited." – Head Coach King Rice
 
"You have Marcus and George as super seniors, those guys have carried us for a few years and now they're going to have their best year. You can trust them with anything. I thought Marcus was dominant in that game playing against bigger guys inside and getting whatever he wanted. George played like George, he loves to play, he loves to compete and I'm glad he's on my team. I'll go to war with George Papas any day." – Rice on Papas and McClary
 
"We all came together as a team when we had some guys in foul trouble and that's awesome, to see guys come together like that. We're a tough group, we have a lot of older guys and we can handle some runs like that, and tonight we showed that we're grown men that can handle some adversity. We said before going on the court in the huddle that we were not going home 0-2." – Guard George Papas
 
"We have a great group of guys with a lot of experience from many different walks of life, we are definitely battle tested and resilience is something we're familiar with." – Guard Marcus McClary
-McClary scored a career-high 16 points.
-Papas became the second Hawk in as many games to top 20 points.
-Walker Miller grabbed a career-best eight rebounds.
-Myles Foster topped a career-high with seven boards.
-MU picks up its first win of the year on the road for the third time in the last four seasons.
-Monmouth tops Towson for the first time in program history.
-Jack Holmstrom saw his first action of the season.
-The Hawks are now 18-20 against current CAA members.
-This marks MU's first W in the state of Maryland since February 18, 2012 at Mount St. Mary's.
-This is the first win as a Hawk for seven MU newcomers.
-King Rice moves to 5-5 against CAA competition.

NUMBERS CRUNCH
-Monmouth outshot Towson 50% to 31.7%.
-MU limited Towson to 31.6% from deep while shooting 45.5% themselves.
-The Hawks scored the first 17 points of the game and led 24-1 at one point.
-MU was better in the paint, 28-24.
-MU never trailed in the game, leading for 39:34.
-There were 69 combined free throws in the game.

UP NEXT
-Monmouth's home opener is slated for Tuesday night at 7:00 p.m. against Lehigh.