Monmouth Basketball Earns First Win of Season

The Monmouth University basketball team squeaked by Navy, 69-67, to earn its first victory of the season and the first for as a head coach.

The Hawks (1-8), who have not yet played a home game, went into Annapolis and shot 58 percent from the floor, a season best. Junior Jesse Steele, who is leading the team in scoring this season, had a game-high 20 points and Ed Waite and Mike Myers Keitt each had 10.

Trailing 62-60 with 5:08 remaining in the contest, an Andrew Nicholas basket in the lane knotted the game at 62-62, and Waite hauled in an offensive rebound to give the Hawks a 64-62 lead with 1:52 left, a lead they would not relinquish.

After the game, Rice, seemed to be more happy for his players than he was for himself for notching his first career victory.

“I am extremely excited for our kids, our staff and the Monmouth community,” Rice said after the game. “We appreciate all the support, and thank you Dr. McNeil and President Gaffney for this opportunity. I am just hopeful that this jumpstarts us to having a very successful season.”

Rice, 42,  spent the last five years as an assistant coach at Vanderbilt University under head coach Kevin Stallings. Vanderbilt qualified for the NCAA Tournament in four of those five years.

Rice also coached at Oregon, Illinois State and Providence College before becoming an assistant coach at Vanderbilt.

, who announced his resignation in February after serving as the team's head coach for 14 seasons, and five years as an assistant coach prior to becoming the head coach.

Monmouth will play its first home game of the season on Saturday, Dec. 10, at 7 p.m. against Atlantic-10 foe Fordham (3-3).

The Hawks have played a tough schedule this year, losing to teams such as Villanova, George Mason, Vanderbilt and Virginia Tech. They have also lost their first two NEC games in road contests at Saint Francis (PA) and Robert Morris.

They still have two ranked teams on their schedule in North Carolina and Harvard, so it will be important for Monmouth to try to better its record against average teams such as Fordham and Rider.