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Armon Harried slams one home for Canisius in a road game at Monmouth Jan. 28, 2022 in West Long Branch, N.J.
Dave Schofield '71
67
Canisius Canis 7-13,3-6 MAAC
72
Winner Monmouth MU 13-6,5-3 MAAC
Canisius Canis
7-13,3-6 MAAC
67
Final
72
Monmouth MU
13-6,5-3 MAAC
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
Canisius Canis 39 28 67
Monmouth MU 41 31 72

Game Recap: Men's Basketball |

Men’s Basketball Falls Short in Loss to Monmouth

Monmouth graduate student George Papas scored six of his team-high 22 points in the game's final 3:23 to help lift the host Hawks to a 72-67 win over Canisius Friday night in MAAC men's basketball action at OceanFirst Bank Center in West Long Branch, N.J.
 
The win, Monmouth's third straight, improves the Hawks to 13-6 overall and 5-3 in MAAC play, while the Golden Griffins slipped to 7-13 overall and 3-6 in league action. The loss ended Canisius' two-game win streak.
 
Junior guard Armon Harried recorded his first career double-double with 22 points and a career-high 10 rebounds. He was also credited with two assists, two steals and a blocked shot in the loss. Senior Ahamadou Fofana added 18 points and four rebounds and junior Akrum Ahemed came off the bench to score 11 points while grabbing five rebounds and dishing out three assists.
 
GAME RECAP
A lay-up by Canisius junior Jacco Fritz with 5:23 left on the clock put Canisius up six at 65-59, but that would end up being the Griffs' final field goal of the night, as Monmouth closed out the game on a 13-2 run over the contest's closing 5:08. Monmouth's Walker Miller got that run started with a hook-shot off an assist from Papas, and moments later, Miller fed a pass to teammate Shavar Reynolds to made the score 65-63 in favor of the Blue and Gold with 3:50 showing on the clock. After Canisius was whistled for an offensive foul the next time down the floor, Papas put Monmouth ahead for good with a 3-point field goal from in front of his team's bench to make the score 66-65 in favor of the home team with 3:23 remaining.
 
Monmouth led 70-65 late in the game before Harried hit a pair of free-throws with 2.9 seconds left to make it a one-possession game, but Papas ended the night's scoring with a pair of makes from the charity stripe to seal the victory for the Hawks' – the team's seventh-straight victory over the Griffs, going back to the 2018-19 campaign.
 
Canisius trailed by as many as nine points midway through the first half before the Blue and Gold mounted a charge with a 12-4 run over the span of 2:39 to cut Monmouth's cushion to 26-25 with 7:07 left before halftime. In that run, Harried accounted for five of Canisius' points. Canisius went into the intermission down two at 41-39 after the Griffs shot 48.3 percent from the field in the game's opening 20 minutes, highlighted by five makes from behind the 3-point arc.
 
In the second half, Papas stretched Monmouth's lead to 44-39 with a 3-point field goal, but that would end up being the largest lead for the Hawks for the next 19:26 of game action. Canisius used an 8-4 run to tie the game at 50-50 with 13:19 remaining, and then the Blue and Gold took their first lead of the second half moments later on the power of a jumper by Ahemed. A pair of free-throws by Fofana with 8:31 remaining put Canisius up four, and Canisius' lead hovered in that area until the Griffs took a six-point lead at 5:23 remaining on Fritz's bucket off the feed from Fofana.
 
Canisius ended the night shooting 39.3 percent from the field, 31 percent from 3-point land and 76.9 percent from the free-throw line in the loss, while turning 12 Monmouth turnovers into 16 points. The Hawks shot 44.2 percent from the field, 31.3 percent from 3-point land and 67.6 percent from the free-throw line, making 21-of-31 chances from the stripe.
 
Papas also had eight rebounds for Monmouth, while Miller added 17 points, eight rebounds and four assists.
 
Head Coach Reggie Witherspoon's Postgame Comments
"This was a really good college basketball game here tonight. On the last couple of possessions, we really would have liked to get the ball to the basket. Monmouth is a really tough team to play against because they've got so many veteran guys, so when you use timeouts, they come out and change defenses on the fly, but they're all designed to not let you get going toward the basket. I thought we could have done a better job executing late, but our guys fought really hard all the way to the end."
 
"Down the stretch, I think we were at the very end of our energy level, overall. We had some guys come in tonight and they gave us great effort. Bottom line, we need to be able to play without getting in foul trouble. That's a really big takeaway from tonight. You can't put a team like that on the line 31 times. It's unusual they missed 10 [free-throws] tonight. They're one of the better free-throw shooting teams in the league. But overall, I think we're getting better as a team."
 
"We need our guys to just come in the game and say 'what does the team need from me tonight?' and I thought guys like George [Maslennikov], X[zavier Long] and [Akrum Ahemed] came in and just played really, really hard. I thought our effort throughout the team tonight was outstanding. Monmouth is a really good team. They're experienced and they put you in positions where they score off your mistakes very quickly. Normally, you come in here and get in foul trouble, you're playing a bunch of different guys just trying to eat minutes. But tonight, we mixed and matched rotations and the ball kept moving and everyone was focused on their transition offense. Everyone was locked in and played hard to give us a chance. We had a chance, just came up a little short in the end."
 
GAME NOTES
• This was the 20th all-time meeting between these two schools since the series started during the 2013-14 season. Monmouth leads the series 14-6.
• Seven of the nine Canisius players that saw time in the game had multiple rebounds on Friday as the Griffs out-rebounded Monmouth, 37-35.
• Friday marked the third time this season Harried has scored 22 points in a game. He leads the team with six games of 20-or more points scored this year.
• Fofana's four 3-point makes are a new career high.
• George Maslennikov came off the bench and played 19 minutes, which ties a career high.
 
UP NEXT
Canisius continues it three-game road swing on Sunday when the Griffs travel to play at Rider. Game time in Lawrenceville, N.J., is set for 2 p.m., and the contest will be broadcast live on ESPN+.
 
For complete coverage of Canisius men's basketball, please follow the Griffs on social media at @Griffs_MBB on Twitter and Instagram.
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