WEST LONG BRANCH, NJ – King Rice earned his 200^th career victory as his son, Xander Rice, converted the game-winning free throws with 2.5 seconds remaining as Monmouth University Men's Basketball used a huge second half to top Hofstra University Saturday, 81-78. Rice netted his 1,500^th collegiate point in the win, MU's eighth straight home victory.
 
Monmouth wasted no time in starting the second-half comeback, with Rice and Jaret Valencia hitting threes in the first 1:37 to cut the deficit in half at six. Tyler Thomas' three for the Pride put them up 10 at 16:34, but an extended Monmouth run of 16-6 ended with Jakari Spence splitting two free throws to tie the game at 63 at 8:06. Monmouth took the lead at 6:24 on a Nikita Konstantynovskyi basket and would not trail again, leading by seven after four straight Valencia free throws with 1:21 to go. Hofstra made two quick threes, however, and tied the game from the foul line with 26 seconds left. MU had the ball with the shot clock off, and Rice was fouled taking a three with 2.5 ticks to play, converting all three free throws. Hofstra's final inbounds feed was deflected by Cornelius Robinson Jr., sealing the win for MU.
 
After MU opened the scoring, Hofstra went up six but a Jaret Valencia three and alley-oop in transition put Monmouth back in front at 14:13 of the opening half. Hofstra used hot three-point shooting to build a lead as large as 13 in the first half, ultimately taking a 50-38 lead into the locker room.
 
NOTES AND QUOTES
 
"I thought it was a great college game. I want to thank the fans. I'm hoping this one will give our guys a lot of confidence. Happy for our kids today and our fans. Guys just have to keep believing." – Head Coach King Rice
 
"I was trying to get the last shot. When they have scorers like they do, you don't want to give them any time to get anything off so we ran an Iso play and I was focused on getting the ball, holding it as long as I can and jumping straight up and shooting my shot and luckily there was a foul." – Xander Rice on the final play
 
"We have a bright future because Monmouth believed in me so I'm always going to be thankful for Monmouth giving me this opportunity, and not just the opportunity but when it wasn't going great at the beginning, believing in the work we were doing in the community and in the classroom so I could get to 200 wins. A lot of people went into this and I'm just thankful." – Rice on reaching 200 wins
 
-King Rice earned his 200^th career win, the first coach in Monmouth's Division I history to reach that mark.
-Rice becomes the 19^th active Division I head coach to win 200 games at one school.
-Xander Rice scored his 1,500^th career collegiate point with his first three of the game.
-Monmouth has won eight in a row at home.
-MU posted its second largest comeback win this season, trailing by as many as 13 (19 – Northern Illinois).
-Rice scored 30+ points for the third time this year, tying Justin Robinson for career 30-point games.
-Rice is now tied for third in single-season 30-point games, behind Rich Pass (5 in 1984-85), Alex Blackwell (4 in 1990-91) and Corey Albano (4 in 1996-97).
-31 points is the second highest scoring total of Rice's career.
-Rice's 12 made free throws is a career high.
-Monmouth snapped a seven-game losing streak to Hofstra, dating back to the 2013-14 season opener.
-Abdi Bashir posted his fourth double-figure scoring game.
-Bashir has now made multiple threes in 13 games this year.
-Jaret Valencia posted his sixth double-digit game this year.
-MU made 25 free throws, a season high.
-The Hawks were fouled shooting three pointers four times.
 
NUMBERS CRUNCH
-Monmouth outscored Hofstra in the second half 43-28.
-The Hawks were better on second chance points, 22-12.
-MU topped Hofstra off the bench, 20-16.
-The Hawks beat Hofstra in the paint, 26-24.
-MU turned Hofstra over 15 times.
 
UP NEXT
-Monmouth hosts first-place Drexel on Thursday night at 7:00 p.m. on SNY, NBC Sports Philadelphia and FloSports. Tickets are available at MonmouthHawks.com/Tickets.