NEW ROCHELLE, NY – Monmouth University Men's Basketball (10-6, 10-5 MAAC) staged a second-half comeback that saw MU with the ball and a chance to tie in the final seconds, but came up just short as Iona College (7-5, 5-3 MAAC) escaped with a 91-86 victory Friday night. Melik Martin (York, PA/York Catholic) posted his third double-double in four games and Myles Ruth (Hillside, NJ/Don Bosco Prep) netted a career-high 13 points in the contest.

MU opened the half with an 11-2 run to trim the Iona lead to 11, but an evenly played next few minutes saw the Gaels back up 18 before the MU run. Deion Hammond (Mitchellville, MD/Riverdale Baptist School) netted three triples in a little over two minutes, and MU got it to eight with under two minutes to go. A Nikkei Rutty (New Rochelle, NY/Trinity Pawling) dunk preceded four Hammond foul shots cut it to four, and after a pair of Iona free throws, MU trimmed it to three and got it back with a chance to tie after the Gaels missed the front end of a one-and-one. MU had the ball with a chance to tie but were unable to convert, falling in the weekend opener.

Monmouth jumped to an early 8-7 lead on a pair of Ruth buckets, forcing an Iona timeout less than four minutes in. Iona responded with an 18-2 run to widen their lead before McClary knocked in a late three to send it to the break at 54-34 Iona.

NOTES AND QUOTES

"Give a lot of credit to Iona, they came out very physical. I thought we responded much better in the second half. We had a chance to get even and we didn't and tomorrow's another day so we'll move forward and tee it up again tomorrow." – Assistant Coach Rick Callahan

-Melik Martin posted his third double-double in the last four games, and second in a row, with 16 points and 11 boards.
-Myles Ruth posted his first career double-digit game for a career-high 13 points.
-Ruth tied a career-best with five rebounds.
-Deion Hammond's 21 points marked his 22^nd career game with 20+ points.
-MU is now 6-2 in MAAC weekend openers this season.

NUMBERS CRUNCH
-There were 53 personal fouls called in the game.
-MU was better off turnovers, 24-18.
-The Hawks topped Iona in second-chance points, 16-10.
-Monmouth was outshot by Iona 55.4% to 38.8%.
-Iona was led by freshman Nelly Junior Joseph, who went for 19 and 11.

UP NEXT
-Monmouth and Iona square off tomorrow on ESPN+ at 7:00 p.m.