WEST LONG BRANCH, NJ – Monmouth University Men's Basketball locked down defensively, allowing just 18 second-half points in winning its fourth in a row Wednesday night over Princeton University (4-2), 76-64. George Papas led MU with 20 points, while Shavar Reynolds and Sam Chaput both scored in double figures to help Monmouth to its best start since 1990.
 
In a stellar defensive half, Monmouth immediately got back into the game with three triples in the first four minutes to trim the deficit to one. With the Tigers up three at 14:14, Reynolds knocked home a triple to tie the game. Myles Foster answered another Princeton basket to knot things before Reynolds hit two threes in 43 seconds to give the Hawks a lead they wouldn't relinquish. Princeton got it down to three before MU held the Tigers scoreless for 7:40, going on an 11-0 run to widen the lead to 14 before winning by 12.
 
Princeton led for nearly the entire first half, at one point growing their advantage to 14 points at 44-30 before consecutive MU triples cut it to eight. Monmouth scored nine of the final 11 points of the half to trim the deficit to seven into the locker room.
 
NOTES AND QUOTES
 
"This is an exciting day. All the respect to Princeton, we've all followed that program for years so this is an incredible game for us. It's fun to win a game against such a storied program as them." – Head Coach King Rice
 
"We're fighters. We weathered the storm and Princeton's a very good team, we knew this would be a battle and we knew we would have to fight adversity. We had to keep going and stay within ourselves and do what we do. We had to turn up our defensive intensity, we let them get comfortable early and at halftime we did that." – Guard Shavar Reynolds
 
-Monmouth starts 4-1 for the first time since the 1990-91 season.
-MU wins four in a row for the first time in the non-conference since 2019.
-The Hawks have now win eight in a row at home.
-King Rice now has eight wins over Ivy League competition, including three against Princeton.
-Myles Foster made his first career start and scored a season best nine points.
-Sam Chaput made his first start since January 4, 2021 at Siena.
-Chaput scored in double figures for the first time since January 29, 2020 at Saint Peter's.
-Tahron Allen scored his first career basket, finishing with four points and five rebounds.  
-Sam Fagan made his Monmouth debut, collecting a steal.
-Monmouth allowed just 18 second-half points, the best defensive half by MU since March 3, 2020 against Fairfield.
-Nikkei Rutty and Myles Ruth missed their first game of the season.

NUMBERS CRUNCH
-Monmouth outshot Princeton 43% to 39%.
-The Hawks limited the Tigers to 18 points in the second half, including a 7:40 stretch of zero points allowed.
-Princeton was held to 24.1% shooting in the final 20 minutes and 16.7% from deep.
-MU outrebounded Princeton 41-40.
-The Tigers were led by 17 points from Jaelin Llewellyn.

UP NEXT
-Monmouth heads to Cincinnati to take on the Bearcats at 2:00 p.m.