2023-24 Monmouth Basketball Gameday Preview: Game Nine

Monmouth Hawks (4-4, 0-0 CAA) vs. Northern Illinois Huskies (5-3, 0-0 MAC)
Saturday, December 9, 2023 - 2:00 p.m.
OceanFirst Bank Center, West Long Branch, NJ
 
TV
SNY/NBC Sports Philadelphia/FloSports
Play-by-Play: Matt Harmon
Analyst: Dave Calloway

QUICK BULLETS
-Monmouth is playing for the first time in 10 days (Nov. 29 at Cornell)
-MU is returning home for the first time since Nov. 21 against Lehigh
-Cornelius Robinson grabbed a career-best eight rebounds at Cornell
-Xander Rice notched his second highest scoring game of his career (27 at Cornell)
-Jaret Valencia notched his career high in points for the second game in a row with 19 at Cornell, making his first 8 FG
-Monmouth's 53.3% FG& at Cornell was its best of the season
-Xander Rice has scored 20+ points in six of eight games this season
-Abdi Bashir was named the CAA Rookie of the Week on 11/27
-The Hawks have started the same five in all eight games
-This is MU's first of four games in the month of December

A MONMOUTH WIN WOULD...
-mark the fifth win of the season for Monmouth
-be MU's second home win of the season
-be MU's first ever win over Northern Illinois
-make the Hawks 5-0 all time against current MAC opponents
-be the 24th conference King Rice has recorded a win against
-register as the 194th win of Rice's career
-hand NIU its fourth loss of the season
-be Monmouth's first win over a MAC school since 2010

MORE INFO ON THE ALL-TIME SERIES
-Monmouth and Northern Illinois are meeting for the first time in men's basketball competition
-Monmouth is 4-0 against current MAC members all time
-MU beat Buffalo in 1981, Western Michigan in 1989, Akron in 2001 and Eastern Michigan in 2010
-All four prior games against MAC teams took place during in-season tournaments at neutral sites (Buffalo - Mansfield Tournament in
Mansfield, PA, WMU - Lobo Classic in Albuquerque, NM, Akron - Hawai'i Pacific Thanksgiving Classic in Honolulu, HI and EMU -
Basketball Travelers Classic in Moscow, ID)
-This is the first time a MAC opponent will play in West Long Branch

NOTES FROM THE LAST TIME OUT
-Jaret Valencia topped his career high for the second game in a row, finishing with 19 points.
-Xander Rice scored the second most points in a game for his career, finishing with 27.
-Rice has scored 20+ points in six of eight games this season.
-Rice has scored in double figures in seven of eight games this year.
-Abdi Bashir scored in double figures for the second time, finishing with 12.
-Jack Collins posted his fifth game in double digits this season.
-Valencia made his first seven shots of the game, including his first career three pointer.
-Cornelius Robinson Jr. grabbed a career-best eight rebounds.
-Rice's six assists tied a season best.
-Monmouth shot 53.8% from the field.
-MU limited Cornell to 18.2% from three in the second half.
-The Hawks forced 14 Cornell turnovers.
-Monmouth had 16 assists next to just eight turnovers.

NEXT UP
-Monmouth will head to Seton Hall for an in-state meeting Tuesday
-The teams will meet at the Prudential Center for the second straight season
-Monmouth will take on its first of two straight NJ opponents (Rider)
-The game will air on FS1 and on the radio via the Monmouth Digital Network