The Monmouth Hawks (17-14) took on the Elon Phoenix (13-18) this past Saturday, Mar. 2, at Schar Center, in Elon, North Carolina. Thanks to a huge offensive spark of 53 points in the second half, Monmouth was able to run away with this game, beating Elon by the score of 85-70.
Graduate student guard Xander Rice was a game changer in this match as he was able to put up 31 points and sunk in a total of six three-point shots. Graduate student forward Nikita Konstantynovskyi also had an impressive game, putting up a double-double that consisted of 13 points and 13 rebounds.
In the beginning of the game, Monmouth looked very strong on both sides of the court, eventually going up by a score of 10-3 with 15:57 left in the first half after redshirt freshman Jaret Valencia was able to slam in his second dunk in a row.
Soon after, Elon was able to go on a run of their own and ended up tying the game up at the score of 11-11 with 14:28 left in the first half, thanks to a successful three-point shot from sophomore guard LA Pratt.
The next few minutes were all Elon as sophomore guard TK Simpkins made the score 19-12 in favor of Elon with 12:07 left in the first half after he scored five points in a row.
Elon kept their foot on the gas pedal as with 6:18 left in the first half the score jumped to 31-16 in favor of Elon after back to back three point jumpers were made by Simpkins and graduate student guard Zac Ervin.
Monmouth was able to cut into the Phoenix lead a bit and trailed by the score of 40-32 at halftime.
As soon as the second half began, Monmouth’s offense started rolling and eventually took the lead back after a successful jumper from Konstantynovskyi that made the score 51-50 in favor of the Hawks with 13:42 left in the game.
The Hawks seemed to be in the driver’s seat once Rice sank a three pointer with 5:45 left in the game, making the score 71-62.
The Hawks did not look back after this, and Rice would end up hitting back to back three-point daggers with less than two minutes in the game. These clutch shots made the score 85-67 in favor of Monmouth with 1:04 left in the game.
Monmouth stood their ground for the rest of the game, resulting in an 85-70 victory for the Hawks, finishing the regular season strong.
The Hawks next matchup will be against the #9 seed Campbell Fighting Camels (14-17) at the Entertainment and Sports Arena in Washington, D.C., on Mar. 9 at 12 p.m.
