LEWISTON, NY – Monmouth University Men's Basketball (6-1, 1-0 MAAC) opened MAAC play with a win Friday night, topping Niagara University (3-4, 0-1 MAAC) 57-49 behind a strong second half and three in double figures. The win is Monmouth's sixth in a row.
 
A 20-4 run to open the second half propelled Monmouth to a 14-point lead, with George Papas and Marcus McClary converting consecutive triples around the 11-minute mark to make it 45-31. The lead stayed at double digits until the closing minutes, and Niagara got as close as five with under a minute to play but MU was 6-6 from the foul line in the final minute to secure the win.
 
MU didn't lead in the first half until the 1:50 mark when Rutty took a feed from Walker Miller and converted a two-handed dunk. Justin Roberts then converted a Niagara three to send the Purple Eagles to the break with a 27-25 lead.
 
NOTES AND QUOTES

"This was a great team win. I thought Niagara did some things to mess with us. George Papas did some incredible things on Marcus Hammond, he's one of the best players in the league. This was a team win, our guys really stuck together after coming back from Cincinnati." – Head Coach King Rice

"We know what we can do on offense, we'll be super patient and if we can take care of our defense everything else will follow. They only scored 22 points in the second half which is huge." – Guard George Papas

-Monmouth wins its sixth in a row for the first time since 2015.
-MU starts 6-1 for the first time since 1990.
-The Hawks are now 13-5 against Niagara all time.
-MU opens 1-0 in the MAAC for the second year in a row and fourth time since joining the league.
-Monmouth has topped Niagara in four of their last six meetings.
-MU scored under 60 points and won for the first time this season.
-The Hawks came back from a halftime deficit to win for the third game in a row.

NUMBERS CRUNCH
-Nikkei Rutty led MU with 10 rebounds, his second double-digit rebounding effort of the season.
-MU limited Niagara to 22 second-half points, the third game in a row MU held an opponent under 25 in the second half.
-MU outshot NU 40.4% to 29.6%.
-The teams each had 34 rebounds.

UP NEXT
-Monmouth heads to Canisius Sunday at 1:00 p.m. to wrap up the Western New York swing.