Washington, DC – Monmouth University Men's Basketball finished the game on a 6-0 run, led by 18 points from Jack Collins in defeating Hofstra University Saturday night in the CAA Tournament second round, 65-60. The Hawks advance to the quarterfinals for the second year in a row.
 
Monmouth came out of the locker room on a 7-0 run, but Cruz Davis' three at 14:16 tied the game at 37. With the scored knotted at 41, Justin Ray converted back-to-back baskets to put the Hawks on top, and Jaret Valencia extended that lead to five with his second three. Consecutive Hofstra threes put the Pride back up before Collins scored five in a row to make it 56-51 MU. Hofstra led by one with under 1:30 to go, but Abdi Bashir Jr. netted a tough jumper, and with the clock winding down, MU got a stop and went 4-4 from the stripe in the final 1:18 to finish up on a 6-0 run and close out the win.
 
Collins connected on two triples in 32 seconds to stake the Hawks to a six-point lead, but German Plotnikov answered with three triples to tie it for Hofstra. A mini 6-0 run for MU gave the Hawks their biggest lead of the half at seven, but Hofstra used an 8-0 run to go in front. Late baskets for each team sent it to the break all square at 28.

NOTES AND QUOTES
 
"First I want to praise Hofstra, those kids played super hard. I think its two evenly matched teams, that game could have gone either way and that's where I need to talk about my guys. Dok just started blocking everything, I'm so thankful that I get to coach Dok and for the game that he had. We were fortunate to get this one." – Head Coach King Rice
 
"When any of the coaches tell me something I just go and try to do it. When I go for the block, my teammates always cover me and I trust them that they will come in and get the rebound." – Center Dok Muordar
 
"Coach said all week that we had to be defensive minded, defense was the emphasis all week. It ended up working out for us. For us to win in that kind of way, we're super excited." – Guard Jack Collins
 
-Monmouth advances to its second straight CAA quarterfinal and eighth quarterfinal under King Rice.
-Dok Muordar's six blocks was a career high, the most by a Hawk this season, and the most in a CAA Tournament game since Drexel's Austin Williams against James Madison on March 3, 2018.
-King Rice is now 13-11 all time in conference tournament games.
-Jack Collins moved into eighth all-time in rebounding at Monmouth.
-Jack Collins led the Hawks with 18 points, and is now eight shy of 1,000 for his career.
-Nine of 11 Hawks that played in the game scored.
-MU has won its CAA Tournament opener in three consecutive seasons.
-Monmouth has won eight of its last 11 games.
-MU now leads the all-time series with Hofstra, 9-8.
-The Hawks move to 3-2 all time in CAA Tournament games.

NUMBERS CRUNCH
-Monmouth outshot Hofstra, 42% to 38%.
-The Hawks dominated points off turnovers, 21-5.
-MU was better off the bench, 21-6.
-The game featured six ties and 13 lead changes.
-Monmouth led for 27:46.

UP NEXT
-Monmouth will take on #3 Charleston in the CAA quarterfinals on Sunday night at 8:30 p.m. at CareFirst Arena in Washington, DC. The game will air on FloCollege and on the radio via the Monmouth Digital Network and Varsity Network App.