FAIRFAX, VA – Monmouth University Men's Basketball was within four in the second half and got 21 points from Xander Rice in his MU debut, but the Hawks were held off by George Mason University on opening night, 72-61.
 
Rice's triple at 16:10 of the second half got MU within three, making it 35-32. George Mason built the lead back to 12 before an 8-0 Monmouth run capped by a Jack Collins four-polnt play trimmed it to four again with 9:23 to go. Again the Hawks got within four when Abdi Bashir Jr. hit a three, and a Collins steal and score got the Hawks within seven in the closing minutes before the home team hung on for a 72-61 victory.
 
Geprge Mason led by as many as 11 in the opening half but a Rice three and Jaret Valencia alley-oop in transition on a pass from beyond half court by Jakari Spence got the Hawks within three. MU trailed 29-23 going into the locker room.
 
NOTES AND QUOTES
 
"We'll get better. We have some really good games coming up. We're going to be a problem for some people. Jaret played in his first game, Abdi played in his first game, Boog [Robinson] played in his first game, Jayden played his first real game minutes. That's four guys playing in the game that haven't really played in college before and we took this team to the wire until they got away a little in the last two minutes." – Head Coach King Rice
 
"We went through one of the hardest seasons last year and the way these kids fought, we told them we're leaving here tonight feeling like we felt the night we lost at Charlotte [2021 season opener]. We could have gotten this game and we didn't, and I'm not an excuse making type of coach, we should have finished and we didn't get it done but I'm walking off with my head high, knowing that I have a nice group of young men in that locker room that are going to do big things for us this season." – Head Coach King Rice
 
-Five Hawks made their MU debuts tonight.
-Xander Rice, making his Monmouth debut, led MU with 21 points, his 12^th career game with 20+ points.
-Jack Collins finished with 17 points, his 17^th double-figure game of his career.
-Nikita Konstantynovskyi tied his career high with three blocks.
-This marked MU's first matchup with George Mason since 2011.
-Abdi Bashir, Jaret Valencia and Cornelius Robinson scored their first collegiate points.
 
NUMBERS CRUNCH
-Monmouth was better on the fast break, 15-11.
-MU had nine steals to George Mason's five.
-Each team made nine threes.
-Monmouth forced 18 Patriots turnovers.
 
UP NEXT
-Monmouth heads to West Virginia Friday night, with tip set for 7:00 p.m. in Morgantown. The game will air on Big 12 Now and ESPN+ as well as on the radio via the Monmouth Digital Network.