Men's Basketball 11/25/2019 9:09:00 AM

RADFORD MEETS MONMOUTH IN TUESDAY NIGHT TILT

WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J. – The Radford men's basketball team will travel to the Garden State and take on Monmouth for a Tuesday evening tilt beginning at 7:30 p.m., inside OceanFirst Bank Arena in West Long Branch, N.J.

Radford (2-3) dropped a 70-61 contest to Bradley on Friday evening at Carver Arena inside the Peoria Civic Center. Despite losing the rebound battle for the first time all season, the Highlanders won the turnover battle (17-14) and outscored Bradley's bench 30-18. Cle'von Greene led the Highlanders in scoring with a career-high 15 points coming off the bench. He shot 6-of-10 from the field and led the team with two 3-pointers.

The Highlanders' bench has outscored their opponent's bench 140-46 through the last four games. Even though Radford's bench was outscored by Liberty's in the season opener, the Highlander subs have still outscored the opposing subs by a 72-point margin, 147-75 altogether.

Three of Radford's five leading scorers are coming off the bench. Greene leads all bench players with 8.2 points per game, while Devine Eke has 7.6 and Devin Hutchinson is not far behind with 7.3. Eke leads the team with 6.6 rebounds, while Hutchinson is shooting 42.9 percent from behind the arc (6-for-14).

Carlik Jones and Travis Fields, Jr., are averaging a combined 31.6 points – just under 45 percent of Radford's total points scored per outing. Jones' 20.6 points per game is second in the Big South and ranks inside the nation's top 40.

Defensively, Radford is only allowing 61.6 points per game, which ranks first in the Big South. Radford is also winning on the glass with a +5.2 rebounding margin against opponents. The rebounding margin is tops in the league as well. The Highlanders have taken care of the ball only committing 11.6 turnovers per game – second fewest in the conference.

Monmouth enters the contest with a 2-5 record but has faced some tough competition. The Hawks have taken on Pittsburgh and Big 12 foes Kansas and Kansas State. Monmouth only lost to Pittsburgh by 13 and held the Panthers to less than 65 points but fell to the pair of Kansas schools by a combined 74 points.

The Hawks have held four of their opponents to 65 points or less and claimed wins in two of those games. The first came in the season-opener against Lehigh, 66-62, on Nov. 5th and the second came on Friday night against Kennesaw State. Monmouth held the Owls to just 40 points in a 71-40 victory. The defense held KSU to 32 percent shooting from the floor and 11.1 percent for 3-point range.

Just like Radford, the Hawks have two players averaging double-figure points. The first is Deion Hammond averaging 13.6 and the second is Ray Salnave averaging 12.4. The pair of guards are the only players with more than 50 points scored this season. Hammond is five away from 100, while Salnave needs 13.

As a team, Monmouth ranks fourth in the MAAC with a 31.3 shooting percentage from long range and sits among the same spot in the conference in 3-point defense. The Hawks are totaling just under seven 3-pointers made per game. Monmouth has a -7.0 rebounding margin against its opponents through seven games played this season.

The Highlanders and Hawks will meet for the first time in each program's history Tuesday evening.

The game can be seen on ESPN+ or heard live online through Stretch Internet or radio outlets, WRAD 101.7 FM and WVRU 89.9 FM.

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