WEST LONG BRANCH, NJ – King Rice set the program record for career Division I wins with his 179^th, and Nikkei Rutty grabbed 19 rebounds as Monmouth University Men's Basketball (18-9, 10-6 MAAC) ran past Siena College (13-11, 10-6 MAAC) 71-59 Tuesday night.
 
Siena briefly trimmed the MU lead to 12 before Shavar Reynolds netted a three-point play and Walker Miller put home a floater to make it a 17-point margin. In a 15-point game, George Papas hit two threes in 44 seconds to make it a 21-point edge. Siena whittled the deficit down to nine, but MU scored 10 of the next 11 points en route to the win.
 
Papas' early three tied the game at three, and after Walker Miller's free throw at 13:40 of the opening half, Monmouth never trailed again. The Hawks steadily built a double-digit lead that grew as large as 15 at the break, with Papas knocking home a wing triple with time winding down that made it 34-19 Hawks.

NOTES AND QUOTES

"We ride these super seniors. I have all the faith in the world with them. When George is hitting, it makes our defense ramp up and tonight I thought our defense was incredible." – Head Coach King Rice

"Dr. McNeil and President Gaffney brought me here 11 years ago. Now my family gets to celebrate this nice moment. Coach Calloway is the one who built this up and its cool for me to share this with him. Getting to that number is a credit to everybody at Monmouth, they stuck by me and I'm so thankful and now I get to have a special night like this." – Rice on the program's wins record
 
"We definitely came out with more of an aggression, we couldn't come out slow against this team since they play similar to us so we had to come with some grit and I'm happy we got it done today. I always like to challenge myself to get more rebounds than I had the last game, today I was trying to get them off the glass, they're a good rebounding team. I try to get under the rim when the shot goes up to see what happens." – Nikkei Rutty


-King Rice won his 179^th game, the most in program history at the Division I level. It is the second most in the school's all-time history, behind only Bill Boylan's 364.
-Nikkei Rutty's 19 rebounds is the most single-game rebounds in the King Rice era by a player.
-Rutty's 19 boards, four more than his prior career-high, are the most in a game by a Hawk since Alex Blackwell had 19 exactly 30 years ago to the day, February 22, 1992 against Wagner.
-George Papas moved into sixth all-time in school history with his 205^th made triple, passing John Giraldo.
-Papas' four threes gave him 83 for the year, third most in a single season in school history.
-Rutty tied his career-high with four blocks, last done on February 6, 2021 at Manhattan.
-MU's 18 wins ties the third most in a season in the Rice era (2014-15, 2019-20).
-Monmouth has secured at least a .500 record in MAAC play for the fourth year in a row and seventh of the last eight.
-Klemen Vuga made his first field goal since January 14 at Saint Peter's.

NUMBERS CRUNCH
 
-Monmouth won on the glass, 47-41.
-MU limited Siena to 32% and 15% from downtown.
-Monmouth allowed 19 first-half points, the third time this season MU has kept an opponent under 20 points.
-MU limited Siena to 21.9% and 0-8 from three in the opening half.

UP NEXT
-Monmouth hosts Saint Peter's Friday night at 7:00 p.m.