Hawks Hang on Despite 2nd Half Charge by Spartans
Monmouth’s junior guard, Deion Hammond skies for a two handed jam that gave the Hawks a 63-54 lead with 7:41 remaining in the second half against Norfolk State in the Fort Myers Tip-Off Classic at OceanFirst Bank Center in West Long Branch on Wednesday night. Hammond scored 18 of his game high 24 points in the second half to lead Monmouth to a 75-71 victory.
WEST LONG BRANCH, NJ—On Thanksgiving Eve, GMC Hoops wrapped a busy day before the big holiday to take in some NCAA Division I men’s basketball. Traveling down to OceanFirst Bank Center on the campus of Monmouth University, we decided to get a ticket for a contest from the Fort Myers Tip-Off Classic between the Hawks and Norfolk State.
Only seeing the last 24:30 of action in the game, GMC Hoops had literally a ringside seat to some very competitive basketball as Monmouth took a 38-33 lead into the locker room at the intermission, and then after an early run by Norfolk State to start the second half, the Hawks grew its advantage to ten points before the Spartans made another run to close within a single possession.
Fortunately for Monmouth, the likes of Deion Hammond prevented Norfolk State from getting any closer. Hammond, who had a two handed jam and then a three pointer from the left corner for a 70-62 lead late in the second half, would not let that happen. Hammond finished with a game high 24 points on 8 of 18 shooting including 4 of 11 from three while also adding 6 rebounds, and an assist to lead the Hawks to a 75-71 victory.
The Hawks had 11 players get into the game and 10 of them scored. While Norfolk State had more players score in double figures with three including Joe Bryant Jr., who had a team high 19 points along with 5 rebounds, the Spartans only had 7 players score. Five of Monmouth’s players scored at least 8 points or more including Mustapha Traore, who made 5 of 10 shot attempts from the floor for 10 points including a two handed jam toward the end of the first half.
CBA alum Louie Pillari added 9 points while Patrick School standout, Marcus McClary and Ray Salnave each chipped in with 8. Jermaine Bishop scored 16 for NSU on 6 of 12 shooting from the floor including 4 of 8 from beyond the arc. He and Bryant led the charge in the second half that propelled the Spartans to within one with 4:59 remaining. Steven Whitley also chipped in for Norfolk State with 13 points on 6 of 14 shooting.
Monmouth shot 28 of 58 from the floor for 48.3 percent including 8 of 22 from downtown while Norfolk State was 27 of 61 from the court for 44.3 percent including 7 of 19 from three for 36.8 percent. The Hawks were 11 of 15 from charity stripe while the Spartans were only 10 of 15. Monmouth overcame being outscored 36-24 in the paint and 20–2 in 2nd second points by Norfolk State by scoring 24 points off turnovers, and held a 21-16 edge in bench points.
There were only four lead changes and two ties in the contest, and all of that occurred in the first half before the Hawks took the lead for good at 14-13 on a jumper from Melik Martin off an assist from former Union County standout, George Papas with 13:11 remaining in the first half. Monmouth grew the lead to eight at 26-18 with 8:01 to go in the half on a jumper by Papas. Norfolk State scored five unanswered including a layup in the paint by Chris Ford to pull within 26-23, but the Hawks scored 12 of the last 22 points of the period for a 38-33 lead at the intermission.
The run included 4 of the last 5 points of the half by Monmouth that included a foul line jumper from Jarvis Vaughn at the 1:37 mark, and Traore’s Dunk with 49 seconds to play in the half. Traore, who also had connected on a foul line jumper similar to Vaughn’s nearly a half minute earlier, took a nice touch pass from Vaughn from the left baseline to jam it home. Unfortunately, Traore was called for a technical for hanging on the rim, and Bryant made the technical foul shot with 45 seconds left to make the score 38-33 at the break.
Hammond, who scored 18 of his 24 points in the final 20 minutes, got started quickly with a layup at the 19:07 mark, and then a trey at the 18:35 mark for a 43-35 advantage. After a Norfolk State score, Pillari then made it a 9 point lead at 46-37 by sinking a three from the right side at the 15:42 mark. The Spartans rallied by scoring 9 of the next 12 points including a layup from Efstratio Kalogerias at the 14:30 mark, and a trey by Bishop with 14:09 left to close the gap to 49-46.
McClary sparked a 10-3 spurt by the Hawks with a layup at the 13:42 mark followed by layup from Hammond with 13:17 to play, and then 3 of 4 from the line by Hammond, a jumper by Salnave with 10:28 to play, and foul shots from Papas at the 9:42 mark for a 59-49 lead. Bishop, who scored 13 of his 16 points in the second half on three treys and two jumpers, answered with a three at the 9:26 mark, and a jumper with 8:53 to play to draw the Spartans back to within five at 59-54.
Monmouth replied by scoring the next four points including a jumper from Traore with 8:38 to play, and a two handed jam from the left low block by Hammond at the 7:41 mark for a 63-54 lead. Norfolk State rallied again with 8 straight points including jumpers from Whitley and Bryant at the 6:37 and 6:18 marks respectively, and a trey from Bryant with 5:45 to play to pull within one at 63-62. The Spartans would never get that close again. In perhaps the pivotal run of the game, Monmouth scored 7 unanswered points in a span of just 1:48 after a Kashaun Hicks free throw capped NSU’s 8-0 burst.
Figuring prominently again in the Hawks key run was Hammond, who netted a jumper at the 4:40 mark for a 65-62 lead, and then following a McClary jumper at the 4:08 mark, Hammond took a pass in the left corner, and drained a trifecta for a 70-62 advantage with 3:11 left. Norfolk State tried to claw back into the contest once more by putting together another 9-3 spurt that included a jumper from Hicks at the 2:22 mark, a jumper by Bryant with 1:25 left that pulled the Spartans within three again at 70-67, a jumper from Chris Ford with 23 seconds left, and Whitley jumper with eight seconds to go.
Norfolk State would run out of time though as Hammond sealed the 75-71 victory with two foul shots with 6 seconds to go. With the victory, Monmouth, which defeated Radford the night before (80-63), won its second straight to improve to 4-5 overall, and will not be back in action until December 10th when it faces Garden State rival, Princeton of the Ivy League at Jadwin Gym. Norfolk State fell to 3-5 overall, and returns to action against Niagara on Sunday, December 1st at 4:00 PM and then plays at Southern Illinois on Wednesday, December 4th.
GMC NEWS AND NOTES: While there were no former standouts from the Greater Middlesex Conference in action in this contest, former St. Joseph’s standout, Bree Tyree was in action for Mississippi in the NIT Tip-Off at the Barclay’s Center. The Rebels, which defeated Norfolk State in Oxford on November 12th, 68-55, rallied from a 43-27 halftime deficit and 21 points at one juncture in the contest to defeat Penn State, 74-72.
Tyree led the way with a team high 18 points on 7 of 18 from the floor including a three pointer while also grabbing 5 rebounds. Blake Hinson and KJ Buffen also chipped in with 17 and 13 points respectively while Buffen pulled down 9 boards. Lamar Stevens led all scorers with a game high 22 points along with 7 rebounds and an assist for Penn State. Mike Watkins added a double-double of 18 points and 12 rebounds while Myron Jones chipped in with 12.
Back to the game between Monmouth and Norfolk State, George Papas, who scored only 4 points for the Hawks, played at Union Catholic High School in Scotch Plains. During the past two summers, Papas has played at the Jersey Shore Basketball League in Belmar for Orthopedic Institute, which won the 2018 JSBL Championship over Larson Ford, but lost to the same Larson Ford team in the title game this past summer.
One of Papas’ teammates on Orthopaedic Institute is former South Plainfield standout, Denzel “Deuce” Mensah, who played college basketball for NCAA Division 3 Penn-State Wilkes-Barre, has scored 156 points in 7 appearances over the past two seasons at the JSBL. Mensah has also helped a great deal to bring the game of basketball to Africa, and recently became a member of Ghana’s National Team.
Mensah, who graduated Penn State-Wilkes Barre in 2015, after playing in South Plainfield’s program from 2009 to 2011, also tried out for the Greensboro Swarm of the NBA’s G-League. Mensah is proof positive that you don’t need to be an NCAA Division I player to play professionally. If you have the right attitude and upside, and are willing to do anything it takes to help a team win, you will find a place somewhere playing the game you love.
At the game on Wednesday night was Newark Eastside senior standout, Mikah Johnson Jr., who recently signed an NLI with Monmouth to play for the Hawks next season. Johnson, who helped lead Newark Eastside to the Group IV State Final before losing to Shawnee in 2018, and then to the 2019 TOC before falling to Bergen Catholic in the semifinals at RWJ Barnabas Arena in Toms River.
The Red Raiders are looking to contend for the TOC again in 2019-20 and Johnson, who played for the New Jersey Bulldogs AAU club with the likes of current Carteret standouts, Cam McCargo and Jihad Davidson as well as former Rambler standout, Malik Austin, New Brunswick’s Tahjay Moore and Ahyan Brown-Miller, and Timothy Christian’s Ronnie Burwan, will be leading the charge.