Monmouth basketball season ends with loss to Charleston at CAA Tourney
It wasn’t the ending Monmouth wanted, unable to shock the field and make a run deep into the CAA Tournament and land one of the 68 spots up for grabs in March Madness.
But even with Sunday’s 83-59 season-ending loss to top-seeded Charleston in the quarterfinals Sunday, there were a host of compelling storylines and positive takeaways from what was a bounce-back season for the program.
It all ended against a talented Charleston team looking to defend its tournament title, opening up a 21-point lead early in the second half before surviving a Monmouth rally and taking the game over at the Entertainment & Sports Arena in Washington, D.C.
Monmouth ends the season with an 18-15 record, 11 more wins than a year ago, while going 10-8 in league play. It was their second loss to Charleston, the favorite to get the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The Hawks advanced for the second time in as many CAA Tournament appearances, topping Campbell in Saturday’s opening round.
The Hawks made a second half run that saw them cut the deficit to seven points, before Charleston went on a 14-0 run to regain control.
Monmouth got 16 points from graduate guard Xander Rice, who came home to play his final season for his father, Monmouth head coach King Rice, and was a first-team All-CAA selection. Redshirt freshman forward Jaret Valencia, named to the All-CAA Defensive and Rookie teams, added 15 points, the only other Hawk in double figures. Graduate center Nikita Konstantynovskyi scored eight points and grabbed nine rebounds.
“I’m proud of our season. I’m proud of our bounce back,” King Rice said. “This was an incredible, incredible year for us, for my family personally.
“Tough day for us today and we are going to give Charleston all the credit. They just outplayed us. We got it down to seven and though it was turning a little bit, but (Charleston coach) Pat (Skerry) does an incredible job.”
Rice, who scored over 1,000 points in four seasons at Bucknell, ends the season averaging 20.4 ppg., while providing late game heroics that helped Monmouth win 13 straight games at home.
“It was a dream come true this whole year,” Xander Rice said. “It’s been a blessing. It didn‘t turn out the way we wanted but being able to be around my family - the off the court stuff has been the coolest part. Being able to go home, be around my little brother (Julien), watch him grow up be around my mom, be around my dad. It’s been a blessing.”
Top seed for a reason
Charleston (25-7) has won 10 straight, with All-CAA first teamer Ante Brzovic leading the way with 15 points and nine rebounds, while Ben Burnham scored 16 points and Frankie Policelli added 14 points, including four 3-pointers.
After Charleston scored the first six points of the second half to open a 50-29 lead, Monmouth went on a 7-0 run of its own, with Collins scoring five points, to cut the lead down to 50-36. It eventually became an 18-4 run after back-to-back scores by Konstantynovskyi pulled Monmouth within 54-47 with 12 minutes left.
But Burnham, a third-team All-CAA selection, drilled a 3-pointer as the shot clock expired to push the lead back to double digits. It was the spark Charleston needed, going on a quick 14-0 run, including a second Burnham triple and a Policelli bomb from the corner, with the lead eventually swelling to 68-47.
Charleston made big runs in both halves to maintain control of the game when Monmouth was gaining confidence.
After a Rice 3-pointer pulled Monmouth even at 18-all, Charleston hit the Hawks with a 15-1 run midway through the first half, opening up a 33-19 lead with 6:59 left, as Policelli scored 11 early point on 3-of-5 shooting.
Rice scored 10 points in the opening 10 minutes, but Monmouth was never able to get the rest of its offense untrack against the Charleston defense.
"They’re just good. They run a lot of good stuff and they can get to 90 on anybody," King Rice said. "We wanted to keep it in half court but they really run at you and we can play like that too, but our plan was to slow it down and try to make them play defense but the game goes along and the plan gets thrown out sometimes."
FROM SATURDAY
Monmouth pounds Campbell in CAA Tournament opener. Up next, top-seed Charleston
It’s one down, three to go for Monmouth at the CAA Tournament. But that first win was awfully impressive.
Monmouth’s quest to win four games in as many days and return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2006 could not have started any better, with the Hawks dominating Campbell, 90-67, in Saturday’s opener at the Entertainment & Sports Arena in Washington, D.C., building a 24-point second half lead.
Of course, emerging from the 8-9 seed game is one thing. But the road gets exponentially tougher moving forward, with the Hawks having to come back 24 hours later (noon, Sunday) to face top seeded Charleston, with the defending champs getting a first-day bye.
But you have to start somewhere, and it went really well against Campbell, a team Monmouth needed a 40-foot desperation bank shot by Xander Rice to beat at home last month. This time it was a balanced attack in which Rice, a first-team All-CAA selection, served as more of a facilitator, while his teammates shouldered much of the offensive load.
Monmouth (18-14) makes its first trip to the CAA quarterfinals, and has now advanced in both CAA Tournaments since it joined the league, getting by Hampton in a preliminary round game a year ago.
“The only way we can win this is with our defense and our defense carried us today,” said Monmouth head coach King Rice, whose team held Campbell to 44 percent shooting and held a 37-21 edge in rebounding.
Monmouth sophomore guard Jack Collins was everywhere in producing a double-double, scoring 13 points and grabbing 10 rebounds, as well as dishing out six assists and making countless other plays that don't make it into the box score. The Manasquan native clearly likes the venue. He scored 32 points, hitting 6-of-8 from beyond the arc, in the win over Hampton a year ago.
Redshirt freshman forward Jaret Valencia finished with 13 points, on 6-of-7 shooting, to go six rebounds, while senior guard Jakari Spence had 14 points and five assists. Freshman guard Abdi Bashir Jr. finished with 11 points, hitting a trio of 3-pointers.
Campbell (14-18) was led by sophomore guard Anthony Dell’Orso, who finished with a game-high 23 points.
The game couldn’t have started much better for Monmouth, building a 46-31 halftime lead as Collins and Bashir Jr. each hit three 3-pointers, and Konstantynovskyi grabbed six rebounds.
1. Xander Rice is a complete player
As good of a scorer as Rice has been this season, you saw how complete a player he is in this one. In the first half, he served as a facilitator, dishing out five assists while failing to score as Monmouth opened up a comfortable lead, rather than forcing shots. And in the second half he did it all, both scoring and finding his teammates. He finished with 12 points and eight assists and three rebounds.
It also served to highlight just how many options the Hawks have in terms of scorers, with six players in double figures.
2. Winning inside
Just add the totals put up by Monmouth’s frontcourt and you have the type of numbers the Hawks needed against an undersized Campbell lineup, and will need against Charleston. Between Valencia, Konstantynovsky, Klemen Vuga and Cornelius Robinson Jr., the frontcourt accounted for 37 points, 22 rebounds and three blocks. The Hawks had a 50-20 advantage in points in the paint.
Valencia was particularly active, while Konstantynovskyi continues to provide the muscle the Hawks need in the paint.
“I think it all starts with Nikita,” Collins said. “He’s a massive presence in there - 6-10, 250 - he’s not easy to move around. He’s really, really strong.”
It was Vuga, who has struggled to come back from a back injury, scoring eight points in the first half to spark a rally that put the Hawks in front for good.
"I call that being a senior. Klem has been through that a bunch of times with us. He knows what we need," King Rice said. "Now we'll see if he can bounce back and do it again for us Sunday."
3. Up next
Monmouth faced Charleston on the road back on Jan. 13, and it didn’t go well, falling 94-83. Charleston led by 23 points with less than seven minutes to play and was never in any real danger. First-team All-CAA selection Ante Brzovic had a double-double, with 12 points and 12 rebounds, with five players hitting double figures.
Monmouth got clobbered on the glass, 48-35, and will have to do a much better job in the paint.
“It’s a tall task, but we like that kind of stuff,” King Rice said.
“They cause so many problems because everyone they put in the game can score. So you have to come up with something. I’ve been thinking about this one for a long time. We’re going to implement some things we think can help us defensively. Not overhelp, because they kill you if you get beat. They throw the extra pass, they’re as good as anybody in the league with that.”
PREGAME
Can Monmouth basketball make a run at CAA Tournament? 3 keys vs Campbell in opener
A quick look at the Coastal Athletic Association’s postseason honors for men’s basketball provides insight into Monmouth’s growth over the past year.
In the Hawks’ first season in the league, the only mention when the awards were unveiled was Jack Collins getting a much-deserved nod, landing on the CAA All-Rooke team.
In the leadup to Saturday’s CAA Tournament opener (noon; FloSports) for Monmouth (17-14) against Campbell (14-17), the vibe surrounding the Hawks is a lot different as the league converges on the Entertainment & Sports Arena in Washington, D.C.
As expected, Xander Rice was on the All-CAA first team, with the graduate guard coming home to play his final season for his father, head coach King Rice, and altering the program’s trajectory. A contender for CAA Player of the Year, which went to Hofstra’s Tyler Thomas, Rice’s 20.8 points-per-game ranks third in the league, and is top-20 nationally, while his late-game heroics were a big part of the Hawks add 10 games to their win total from a year ago, while climbing over .500 in league play at 10-8.
And while Rice is the face of the program this year, redshirt freshman forward Jaret Valencia represents the future. The 6-9 Valencia was named to both the All-Rookie and All-Defensive teams, highlighting the impact he’s had in his first college season. His 1.7 blocker-per-game was second in the league behind Drexel’s Amari Williams, a first teamer, and his 8.5 ppg. is one of the top numbers among the league’s freshmen. And his athletic ability, particularly his soaring dunks, can energize the entire team.
With that said, Monmouth has a brutal draw. A 12-game road losing streak offset a 13-game home winning streak, leaving the Hawks in a tough 8-9 game opener. And the reward if they advance is a quarterfinal showdown with Charleston, with the regular season champs looking to defend its tournament title.
But unlike a year ago, Monmouth at least shows up with a puncher’s chance to land a roundhouse in its quest to return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2006.
Here are three keys in Monmouth’s CAA Tournament opener against Campbell:
1. Steady play
This is a rematch of Monmouth’s dramatic 88-87 win on Feb. 15, when Rice hit two 3-pointers in the final 3.2 seconds, including a 40-foot bank shot at the buzzer to win it.
The reality is that Monmouth’s performance was wildly uneven throughout, and they were a miracle finish away from a Quad 4 loss at home. They were down 10 points in the first half, up 10 points with just over five minutes to play and down five points with 10 seconds left. They simply have to play better in this game, particularly on the defensive end. Campbell shot 58 percent in the first half and 49 percent for the game, and 53 percent from 3-point range.
2. Contain Campbell’s Dell’Orso
Anthony Dell’Orso, Campbell’s 6-6 sophomore, is one of the league’s young stars. He averaged 21.9 points in league play, and had 12 20-point games this season. He finished second in steals (1.7), third in scoring, fourth in field goal percentage (51), fifth in free throw percentage (81), and 12th in rebounding (6.9). He scored 31 points against Monmouth, only to be outdone by Rice’s 37 points. He also had 10 rebounds.
This sounds like an assignment for Jack Collins, but it’s really an all-hands-on-deck situation. Whoever’s on him is going to need help. But not allowing Dell’Orso to beat you is a priority.
3. Experience matters
Among the top seven players in Monmouth’s rotation, four have been in this situation before, with Rice, Collins, senior guard Jakari Spence and graduate center Nikita Konstantynovskyi all have played in conference tournaments. And it’s the leadership that group exhibits, on and off the court, that’s going make the difference for an otherwise young roster.
Monmouth’s best has been pretty good this season, including a pair of neutral site wins at the Palestra. And while four wins in four days is a tall order, you have to start by winning the first one.
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Monmouth basketball season ends with loss to Charleston at CAA Tourney
