WEST LONG BRANCH — At Monmouth’s final home game and Senior Day, the Hawks got their second crucial win in a row, 73-57 over Elon Saturday, Feb. 28 — continuing a stretch where they are possibly playing their best basketball at the right time.
The Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) Tournament is next week and Monmouth (16-14 overall, 10-7 CAA) sat fifth in the conference going into Saturday’s game. If the Hawks finish in the top four, they can get byes to the quarterfinals, which would mean they’d only have to win three straight games to punch a ticket to the NCAA Tournament. Two days prior, Monmouth got an 82-69 victory over Stony Brook to move up in the standings.
Monmouth needs to take care of Northeastern in its last home game and do some scoreboard-watching of Hofstra for the fourth seed.
With Monmouth leading 44-36, the Hawks went on a 10-0 run to extend the lead and give cushion. The run before a Elon timeout was capped by a Jason-Rivera Torres emphatic dunk on the fast break that ignited the arena. Rivera-Torres led the Hawks with 17 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists.
“It’s a must-win game, especially on Senior Night. We didn’t want to go out there and give these guys a loss,” Rice said. “Especially with their families out here and the last game on our home turf and I think like I said before, it’s a must-win game and we got to get a good seed in the playoffs.”
FOUR TAKEAWAYS
1. Senior Day
In honor of Senior Day, Rice put his upperclassmen in the starting lineup. Dok Muordar, Jack Collins, Kavion McClain and Andrew Ball all took the court along with the junior Torres. The air was filled with positive energy with a good turnout. The Monmouth football team, clad in team jerseys, filled the student section and signed autographs before the game. Familes of the seniors also walked out to center court before the game to take photos.
In the upper deck behind the Monmouth bench were Collins fans who took the trip from Manasquan to watch his final home game. About 100 people came to see the Jersey Shore native, wearing Monmouth t-shirts with his number on the back. Collins got a standing ovation when he subbed out in the final two minutes.
“We actually probably would’ve had 50 or 60 more but Manasquan High School ended up playing their playoff game … so they couldn’t make it, but a lot of people,” Collins said.
2. Strong halfcourt defense
Elon came into the game with the second best field goal percentage in the CAA. They were also the second highest-scoring team with an average of 80.1. Monmouth made defense a point of emphasis out of the gate. Picking up full court, forcing shot clock violations and being aggressive in the paint all through the visitors off their game. At halftime, Monmouth led 34-28.
The Hawks forced Elon to commit 13 turnovers. Monmouth out-rebounded the Phoenix 36-26 and blocked three shots. Murodar’s height was effective inside, he had 5 points.
“We just wanted to play with a whole bunch of energy today,” Rice said. “You can’t let them catch where they’re supposed to catch it. They’re very deliberate on where they try to get their guys the ball, you got to disrupt that some. And then when guys catch it in different spots, you got to have help ready to help. I think we did a great job with that.”
3. Spread the wealth
The Hawks found success when they not only pushed the tempo, but when they shared the ball at a fast pace. Rice has been urging his guys to shoot the ball and not be hesitate, and they’ve been letting it fly. Nine different Monmouth players scored the ball on Saturday. Monmouth’s bench outscored Elon’s 26 to 10.
Justin Ray finished with 13 points and made three 3-pointers. McClain had 16 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists. Stefanos Spartalis scored 10 points and grabbed six boards off the bench.
“Kavion,” Rice sited the reason for the better offensive play. “You have a point guard guys. Everybody knows if you have a really really good point guard, everybody plays better basketball.”
McClain has only played in the last seven games of the season since being cleared by the NCAA. It’s unlikely that he’ll have eligibility remaining after this season.
“I don’t know,” Rice said. “They’re talking about because he missed this year, maybe he should be trying to do something. I’m thankful to the NCAA that Kavion got cleared when he got cleared.”
4. Injury report
With 10:16 left in the game, Cornelius Robinson Jr. tried to posterize a defender and landed awkwardly. He left the game holding his calf and didn’t return for the rest of the game. The trainer ruled it a lower body injury. Zabayr Griffin was out with a lower body injury.
“I haven’t heard anything about Cornelius yet,” Rice said. “Zubayr has a similar injury to what Jack has. So we’re being very cautious with him. He is practicing some so we’re just being cautious with him. He’s definitely going need to some surgery at the end. We just don’t want him to injury it more.”
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Monmouth men’s basketball beats Elon in crucial CAA league game