Robinson Sinks 36, Monmouth tops Siena 98-37

Justin Robinson (Lake Katrine, NY/Kingston) became the sixth Hawk to score 36 points in a single game and the first since 2001, topping a career-high as the Monmouth men’s basketball team beat Siena 93-87 Monday night at the Times Union Center. Monmouth remains in first place in the MAAC, moving into 10-2 in league and 18-5 overall. Siena falls to 15-8 and 8-4 in conference.

“Our kids got going tonight on offense, especially Justin [Robinson] early,” said head coach King Rice. “Both teams can really score the ball and fortunately for us, we scored more than them tonight.”

Siena trimmed the lead to two twice in the second half, doing so the second time on a pair of Javion Ogunyemi foul shots with 12:19 to go. Monmouth answered with a strong take by Austin Tilghman (Wilmington, DE/Archbishop Carroll [PA]), who tied a career-high with 12 points, and a corner triple from Deon Jones (Wilmington, DE/Sanford School [Towson]) to go up seven. Tilghman followed with another drive to the baseline, floating one through plus the foul to put the Hawks up 10 with 10:37 remaining.

Siena would cut it to six with 8:59 remaining on two free throws from Brett Bisping, but Robinson answered with four straight before Bisping again scored on a dribble drive to trim it to six with 7:01 to play. Chris Brady (Greenlawn, NY/Harborfields) laid one in before Micah Seaborn (Fort Worth, TX/Prime Prep Academy) nailed a three to push the lead back to 11. Jones extended it back to 12 with 3:56 left on a long jumper, but Siena went on an 8-2 push to trim it to 91-85 with 46 seconds left. Je’lon Hornbeak (Arlington, TX/Grace Prep [Oklahoma]) stripped the ball away and hit one of two with 31.8 left, and Monmouth went on to win 93-87.

MU came out of the half leading by nine, but four straight from Ogunyemi immediately cut it to five. Jones hit a pair from the line and Seaborn scored to make it nine before Robinson was fouled from three in the corner, hitting all three to make it 56-46 with 17:30 to go. Siena netted five from Bisping during a 9-2 spurt to cut it to three, and would get it as low as two before Monmouth’s push late extended it to double-figures.

Robinson scored eight points in the first 2:48, including knocking down a pair of triples. Monmouth didn’t trail after Robinson tied the game at five with a jumper at 17:48, leading for the final 37:12 after the junior guard’s second long ball. The lead grew to six with Robinson’s third three at 16:19, and MU went up by 14 on a Seaborn trey with 11:22 remaining in the half. After Ogunyemi trimmed it to 12, Hornbeak hit his second three of the period to put the Hawks up 30-15 with 10:27 remaining.

MU’s lead stayed in double-figures until Ogunyemi’s triple made it nine with 7:31 to go in the half, but Hornbeak’s third three bumped it back to 12. Nico Clareth made it an eight-point game at 2:37, but Robinson netted another to make it 12. Leading by that margin, MU forced Ogunyemi to throw up a triple with the shot clock expiring that went down to cut it to 49-40 at the break.

Robinson became the sixth Hawk in Division I history to score 36 points in a game and the first since Rahsaan Johnson did it in February 2001. He did it on 10-19 shooting, 4-7 from deep and 12-12 from the foul line. The junior added five boards, three assists and three steals in 32 minutes. Tilghman tied a career-best with 12 on 4-5 shooting and 4-5 from the line, while Seaborn also netted 12 on 5-10 from the floor with three assists and three steals. Hornbeak added 10 and six rebounds, and Jones scored 10 with four caroms. MU shot 41.2% from the floor, 43.5% from the outside and 87.1% from the line.

Ogunyemi scored 31 on 10-13 shooting, while Bisping totaled 20 points and 14 boards. Clareth scored 15 off the bench for the Saints, who shot 44.6% from the field and 33.3% from the outside. The Hawks outscored the Saints off turnovers 24-11 and off the bench 30-20.

MU is back in action Friday night at 7:00 p.m. at home against Fairfield on ESPN3.