The Monmouth Hawks (13-11) pulled off a big 62-60 win over the Hampton Pirates (6-18) on Sunday, Feb. 16. at the Ocean First Bank Center. Fifth year guard Damaris Rodriguez hit the shot of the game, recording a three point play with 0:36 left in the game, that propelled the team to victory in this nailbiter. The Hawks have now won four games in a row while playing on their home court.
Fifth year forward Taisha Exanor was an important piece to the Hawks win, racking up a team-high 18 points, 11 rebounds, and two blocks. This was Exanor’s seventh double-double this season, which leads the team.
The Hawks dominated the paint, out rebounding Hampton 46-26, which was a major difference maker to the result of this game.
Monmouth had a much slower start than Hampton offensively. The start of the first quarter consisted of mostly highlights for the Pirates. After a made layup from Arina Nikishina with 2:45 left in the first quarter, the Hawks found themselves down 23-12. The Hawks were able to slightly cut into Hampton’s big lead in the final minutes of the quarter, making the score 25-17 going into the second quarter.
The Hawks then came alive, going on a 13-0 run to start the second quarter. After a pair of made free throws from graduate student and guard Kemari Reynolds, the Hawks found themselves winning by the score of 30-25 with 5:58 before the half.
The Hawks continued to control the second quarter with ease and took a 39-31 lead into the locker room after a dominant quarter of play, in which they outscored Hampton 22-6.
The teams went into the third quarter staying even with each other, but eventually Hampton went on a quick run that cut the Hawks lead to 46-44 with 2:03 left in the third quarter. Hampton’s Aisha Dabo made a two point shot with time expiring that cut the Hawks’ lead to 48-47 going into the final quarter of play.
Hampton hit a few clutch shots throughout the fourth quarter and found themselves with a 60-58 lead over Monmouth with 2:16 left in the game.
Hampton would not be able to score a single point for the rest of the game, which allowed for the clutch three- point play by Rodriguez with 0:36 left in the game to officially seal the 62-60 win for the Hawks.
The Hawks (13-11) will look to stay hot when they travel to David S. Mack Sports and Exhibition Complex to play the Hofstra Pride (9-14) at 2pm on Sunday (2/23/24).
