WEST LONG BRANCH, NJ – Monmouth University Men's Basketball played in its first ever Colonial Athletic Association game, debuting in the third conference in program history. Myles Foster had a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds as the Hawks fell to defending CAA regular season champ UNC Wilmington 68-55 in West Long Branch.
 
Down 15 early in the second half, three straight MU buckets cut the deficit to single digits with 12:50 remaining. Klemen Vuga's floated at 11:21 got MU within eight, but an 8-0 run from the visitors helped them to their 10^th straight win, 68-55.
 
Monmouth played a strong opening half, with a Foster jumper and two Myles Ruth foul shots making it a three-point game at 12:14. MU forced two shot clock violations in the period, and trailed by just six after a Vuga basket with 4:20 to go. A late triple put UNCW up 31-20 at the intermission.
 
NOTES AND QUOTES

"It is an honor for our program to be in this league. This is really, really cool for our school. That tonight was the first night is awesome. I was here a long time ago when we were in the NEC, then the MAAC and now the CAA. To all the people who did the heavy lifting to get us to this point, it's really cool that we're in this new league." – Head Coach King Rice
 
"I thought we battled extremely hard today, more than some of our other games. We had two very good days of practice after the break and I thought our kids came out here facing a team on a long win streak that's one of the best mid-major teams in the country and competed against them." – Rice on his team tonight


-This marked the first Colonial Athletic Association game in program history.
-Myles Foster notched the second double-double of his season and third of his career.
-Klemen Vuga scored in double digits for the fourth time this year.
-Jack Collins matched his career high with four steals.
-MU shot its best percentage of the season from the foul line at 93.3% (14-15).
-The Hawks are now 1-2 all time in their first game in a new conference.
-Every Hawk to appear in a game this season has now made a start, as Andrew Ball made his first career start.
-Monmouth made its first eight free throws, not missing until the 11:50 mark of the second half.

NUMBERS CRUNCH
-Monmouth was better on the fast break, 7-6.
-Each team had eight steals.
-Monmouth limited UNCW to 26% from three.
-MU had 13 turnovers to the Seahawks 14.

UP NEXT
-Monmouth hosts Stony Brook on January 5 at 7:00 p.m. on FloSports.