By Jim Hintelmann
WEST LONG BRANCH –After a memorable eight straight road games that saw it achieve national recognition with stunning upsets over UCLA, USC and Notre Dame, the Monmouth University men’s basketball team finally had its home opener Sunday against Wagner, and the Hawks won in style.
Playing before 3,901 fans, the largest ever to see a Monmouth home basketball opener, the Hawks (6-2) pulled away from Wagner in the final minutes for a 73-54 victory.
“The team gave us a great effort today,” said Monmouth coach King Rice, “Our experienced players have been doing it all season and we’ve added some nice newcomers. Our practices are better because of the better competition.”
Monmouth, led by Micah Seaborn, Justin Robinson and Chris Brady, led almost from the start but didn’t really break open the game until five minutes left, when leading 58-52, ran off 15 straight points to put it out of reach.
Wagner led just once, at 4-2, on a rebound shot by former Raritan High School standout Mike Aaman and tied the game at 12-12 on a layup by Romone Saunders. Consecutive layups by Robinson and Seaborn put the Hawks in front 16-12. Wagner pulled to within one point on a 3-pointer by Dwaun Anderson and then the Hawks went on a 9-0 run, five of those points coming from Seaborn to increase their lead to 25-15.
The Hawks appeared ready to obtain an easy victory in the second half when three point goals by Seaborn and Colin Stewart built the Monmouth lead to 51-33.
“This was fun,” said Seaborn, a red-shirted freshman who took game scoring honors with 19 points.”The crowd was great from start to finish and it was fun to be able to come back and play in front of our own crowd.”
Wagner, though, wasn’t finished, and the Seahawks made of run of their own and eventually narrowed the Monmouth to 58-52 on a put back by Aaman.
“Wagner has a good team and they came to play today,” said Rice. “They put in a great effort.”
Monmouth, though, settled down and put the game out of reach with its 15-point run.
“We just stopped running and rebounding,” said Robinson. “However, once we began doing the things we were supposed to do, we were oaky. We buckled down and got big stops.
“The crowd was incredible,” said Robinson, who is 12th in the nation in scoring with 22.5 points per game.
“Justin has a solid player for us,” said Rice. “We’re a better team defensive when he is on the floor. He’s been a major help to the team. Our defense continues to get better.”
Sunday’s game was only a stop over for the Hawks and they will be back on the road and play four more games beginning with Tuesday’s game at Georgetown. That will be followed by Rutgers, Cornell and Army.
Monmouth will return home Jan. 4 when it plays host to Canisius which had beaten the Hawks two weeks ago.
In addition to the team, the Monmouth University bench has also been recognized nationally for the celebrations and energy that they brought to the team
Thee have made appearance on ESPN and WCBS and have appeared in Sports Illustrated.
