WEST LONG BRANCH, NJ – Monmouth University Basketball (18-10, 10-7) was defeated on Friday night by Saint Peter's University (13-11, 11-6) 70-65. George Papas led the Hawks with 23 points on six triples, five of them coming in the second half.
 
After Saint Peter's got the lead to 11, George Papas got heated up from three, making two in 1:11 to cut it to four. After an SPU triple, Papas hit two more in 1:37 to cut it to one with 4:02 remaining. The Peacocks scored nine of the next 10 and held on down the stretch to win by five.
 
Saint Peter's led by five early, but consecutive threes and back-to-back buckets from Myles Foster had MU up a pair. After the Peacocks rebuilt the five-point edge, Walker Miller made four consecutive field goals to put MU back up one, a pair of them coming on dunks. SPU scored the final five points of the half to lead 35-28 into the locker room.
 
NOTES AND QUOTES

"Let's give Saint Peter's a lot of credit. I didn't do a good enough job to get my team to want to fight them the way they wanted to fight us. Still a lot of games to be played and our main goal is getting down to the tournament in AC and see what we can do." – Head Coach King Rice
 
-George Papas posted his 12^th career 20+ point game.
-Papas' six threes moved him within one triple of fifth in program history.
-Shavar Reynolds notched his 21^st double-digit game of the year.
-Walker Miller posted his 23^rd double-figure game of the year.
-King Rice was honored pregame by Monmouth University President Patrick Leahy and Director of Athletics Jeff Stapleton for his 179^th career win, setting the program's DI record.

NUMBERS CRUNCH
-MU outshot Saint Peter's from three 47% to 33%.
-MU was better on the fast break, 11-0.
-KC Ndefo led SPU with 14 points.

UP NEXT
-Monmouth is at Siena on Sunday at 2:00 p.m. at MVP Arena in Albany.