West Long Branch, NJ – Abdi Bashir Jr. made eight three pointers, Cornelius Robinson III had a career-best 21 points, and Jack Collins added a career-high 10 assists as Monmouth University Men's Basketball came back in the second half to top Elon University, 79-76 Thursday.
 
Elon led by six early in the second half, but Bashir cut it to one with his fifth three of the night at 14:46. Bashir then knocked home two triples in 33 seconds to put the Hawks on top at 12:15, the start of a back-and-forth stretch with the teams trading leads six times. With 5:13 remaining in a tie game, Jaret Valencia scored seven straight points including a corner three at 4:21 that put the Hawks up to stay. The lead never grew more than five, but MU made six foul shots in the final minute to secure the victory.
 
Elon built an early 11-point lead, but Monmouth came back with a 6-0 run to trim it to five. Elon followed that with an 11-3 push to post their largest lead of the half at 13, but the Hawks closed with 10 of the final 14 points to go to the locker room within six, 42-36. Robinson had 17 first-half points, and Collins posted his career-high in assists in the first half alone with seven.
 
NOTES AND QUOTES
 
"I want to give Elon a lot of credit, they gave us a crazy run today playing zone. That shows you the growth of my team, playing against a team that plays you zone for 40 minutes when no one this year has done that. I knew we would figure it out, we got stagnant for a little while and then we got going." – Head Coach King Rice
 
"It's been hard but it's all been about confidence, I've talked to Coach Rice all season long. I'm just losing myself out there on defense, and everything else just opens up." – Forward Jaret Valencia
 
"I was getting open shots out there, it felt good finally getting open shots. Jack Collins picked that zone apart, he was getting me those open shots and I owed it to him to knock them down." – Guard Abdi Bashir
 
"Once again I have to give our fans, our students and our school so much credit. When you're out there and every section is full, and we know how it started this year so this shows how these kids carry themselves around campus, around the town that people want to come support." – Rice on the crowd
 
-The win was Monmouth's 600^th as a Division I program.
-Cornelius Robinson III scored a career-high 21 points on a career-best 10 made field goals.
-Jack Collins posted a career-high in assists with 10, the most by a Hawk in a game this season.
-Bashir's eight threes marked his fourth game with eight or more this season, and now has four of the nine games in Monmouth history in which a player hit eight threes or more.
-Monmouth finishes the home schedule 8-2, its 12^th season with a .500 or better record in 14 years under King Rice.
-Jack Collins played all 40 minutes for the second game in a row and fourth time this season, the most 40-minute games by a Hawk under King Rice.
-For the third game in a row, MU had a player go on a personal 7-0 run to put the Hawks in front for good. Jaret Valencia did so tonight, after Robinson did it against Northeastern and Andrew Ball vs. Hofstra.
-Monmouth's 55.6% from three was the best this season, and best since shooting 57.1% against Lehigh on November 21, 2023.
-Abdi Bashir has taken 530 field goal attempts this season, the most ever in one year by a Hawk.
-Bashir also now has taken 297 threes, the most attempts in one season by a Hawk.
-Collins tied Mustapha Traore for ninth on the all-time rebounds list with 525.
-Jaret Valencia was one point off a season-high and two from a career-best with 17.
-Valencia's nine made free throws was a career-best.
-Sam Fagan made his first career start.
-Five Monmouth players were honored pregame as part of Senior Night, including guards Sam Fagan and Madison Durr, forward Chris Morgan, center Tadhg Crowley and manager Andrew Solomon.

NUMBERS CRUNCH
 
-Monmouth registered 19 assists on 24 made field goals.
-MU outshot Elon 49% to 46%.
-The Hawks shot a blistering 55.6% from three, besting Elon's 37.5%.
-Monmouth was better off turnovers, 17-8.
-MU dominated off the bench, 46-15.

UP NEXT
-Monmouth closes the regular season at Drexel on Saturday at 2:00 p.m. That game will air on NBC Sports Philadelphia, FloCollege and on the radio via the Monmouth Digital Network and the Varsity Network app.