ATLANTIC CITY, NJ – Monmouth University Men's Basketball (12-8, 12-6 MAAC) concluded the 2020-21 season Wednesday night, falling in the MAAC quarterfinals to Fairfield University (9-16, 7-11 MAAC) 79-60. The Hawks conclude the unconventional campaign with a third MAAC regular season title and a league-leading 12 wins.
 
MU seniors Melik Martin (York, PA/York Catholic) and Deion Hammond (Mitchellville, MD/Riverdale Baptist School) knocked in back-to-back threes, with the latter coming at the 12:10 mark to trim the Stag lead to four. However, Fairfield used a 12-0 spurt to lead by 16 and held that lead down the stretch, eventually winning 79-60.
 
Monmouth built a six-point first half lead after Donovann Toatley (Largo, MD/Riverdale Baptist School/Chattanooga) knocked home a three and MU scored twice in transition, the latter on a steal and finish from Myles Ruth (Hillside, NJ/Don Bosco Prep) to go up 20-14. Fairfield answered with a 12-0 run and led by as many as 11 in the period before George Papas (Jersey City, NJ/Union Catholic) netted a long three at the horn to make it a seven-point game at the break.

NOTES AND QUOTES

"We've had a great season, we weren't picked to win it and we ended up close and tying with Siena. We hit 10 wins and we held that down for a long time. Our kids have been incredible all year and we had a bad night tonight. Sometimes this happens. This whole year has been eye-opening, not only with COVID but the social things going on in our country and is continuing to go on." – Head Coach King Rice

"This one feels a little built different but let's start out saying how incredible Fairfield played. They just out-toughed us, they hit us in the face, they were solid. Jay is a great defensive coach and tonight their defense messed us up and we just could not guard them. I thought their discipline in this game was tremendous." – King Rice
 
-The Hawks conclude the season with a league-high 12 wins and the program's third regular season title in six seasons.
-Monmouth finishes this trying season having not endured a self-induced COVID-19 shutdown since November 25, the morning of the scheduled season opener. In that time, MU had games canceled due to false positive results and quarantine periods due to opponent test results, but none of their own.
-MU became one of two teams, joining Fairfield, to play every MAAC team this season.
-Melik Martin scored in double figures for the 13^th time this season and 23^rd time in his career.
-Deion Hammond concludes the year with 1,615 points, good for fifth on the program's all-time scoring chart.
-This marked Monmouth's first MAAC Tournament game since the 2019 MAAC finals.
-MU is now 7-6 all-time in MAAC tournament games.
-Myles Ruth made a career-high six free throws.

 NUMBERS CRUNCH
-The Hawks got 22 paint points and 16 points off the bench.
-Monmouth's 13 steals tied a season high.
-MU shot 31% to Fairfield's 50.9%.
-Taj Benning led the Stags with 24 points.
 
Monmouth concludes the season 12-8, with a MAAC regular season title to its credit. For all information on Hawk Basketball, follow @MonmouthBBall on Twitter.