WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J. – Junior forward Ben Jonson's (Dallas, TX) jumper with two seconds remaining lifted the Colgate University basketball team to a 54-53 come-from-behind win over Monmouth University Saturday night at Boylan Gymnasium.
Colgate (3-6) snapped a six-game losing streak with the non-conference victory, while sending Monmouth to its fifth straight loss, and 10th in 11 games this season.
Jonson finished with 11 points, including six in the final stretch, while sophomore Mike Venezia (Westfield, NJ) tallied a game-high 16 points, including three 3-pointers. Alex Woodhouse (Alexandria, VA) added 10 points and eight rebounds for the Raiders.
The Hawks were led by Travis Taylor with 11 points and six rebounds, while Will Campbell and Alex Nunner had 10 points apiece.
Colgate trailed at halftime by seven points, before staging an exciting second half rally for the victory. The Raiders opened the second half with seven straight points to tie the game on an old-fashion 3-point play by Woodhouse with 16:28 left.
After James Hett made a pair of free throw to put Monmouth back in front by two points, Colgate scored five straight points for its first lead since early in the first half. Leading 33-30, the Raiders saw the Hawks rip off 10 straight points for a 40-33 lead with 9:58 remaining.
Still trailing by seven points after trading two-point plays, Colgate tallied six straight points to pull to within one, 42-41. The Raiders continued to trail until Venezia hit a three-pointer with 1:49 remaining to tie the contest, 50-50.
Monmouth jumped back into the lead 53-50 on R.J. Rutledge's 3-pointer with 1:26 remaining. Woodhouse scored on a dunk with 27 seconds left to get Colgate back to within one point. Colgate was forced to foul, sending Dutch Gaitley to the line for a pair of free throws with 20.6 seconds left, but he missed both and Jonson came down with the rebound. Colgate called timeout with 10 seconds remaining setting up Jonson's game-winning basket.
In the first half, Colgate led 7-4 before Monmouth took a 12-point lead with a 20-5 run. The Raiders battled back scoring seven of the final nine points of the opening 20 minutes to trail 28-21 at the intermission.
After shooting only 35 percent in the first half, the Raiders finished the game with 48 percent, while Monmouth managed only 38 percent for the game. Monmouth edged Colgate on the boards 32-27.
Colgate will break for final exams before continuing its eight-game road trip on Dec. 22 at the University of California-Berkeley.
(Boxscore)
