Persia's 80-footer lifts m. hoops over Hawks

WEST LONG BRANCH — With seven-tenths of a second left in the game and the score tied at 57, it looked certain that the men's basketball team was headed for a second straight overtime contest against a team it should have handily beaten. Sophomore forward Judson Wallace fought hard to force a jump ball on a defensive rebound, giving the Tigers one last prayer to go the length of the court in the blink of an eye.

Sophomore guard Will Venable took the ball out of bounds, and passed it to junior guard Ed Persia who stood on the flank 80 feet from the hoop. Then, in his best Michael Vick impression, Persia turned, pivoted and heaved the ball down court. The ball banged hard off the backboard and straight down through the cylinder, and Princeton (2-2) walked off the court with a most improbable 60-57 win over Monmouth.

"I feel great," an ecstatic Persia said after the game. "I couldn't believe it went in. I knew it had a chance from the start. The ball was on line the whole way.

"But it felt like it took an hour for the thing to get down."

The Monmouth head coach, Dave Calloway, had a different take. "If in three-tenths of a second you can only tip the ball, then he must have caught, turned and pivoted in the other four-tenths.

"You do the math. But hey, they're from the Ivy League, they do math a lot better than I do."

Persia's heroics capped the 21-8 run that he started with just over six minutes left in the game when the Tigers trailed, 49-39.

Persia drove the lane and converted on a runner off the glass to bring the team within eight. On the next possession, junior forward Spencer Gloger hit a three from the left corner, and senior forward Kyle Wente followed that up with a long-range bomb of his own.

Wente's three regained Princeton's lost momentum after senior forward Ray Robins fouled out on the possession before. Venable then tied the game with an uncontested layup when Wente found him with a no-look pass under the basket.

The Hawks and Tigers traded baskets after that until Wallace's rebound gave way to Persia's guided missile.

Though the score was knotted at the half, for the first 14 minutes of the second frame, the visitors played the same careless and sloppy game they displayed last Saturday against Florida International. Poor shooting and several ill-advised passes helped Monmouth hold the lead for all but the last fraction of a second of the half.

"We didn't play well tonight," head coach John Thompson '88 said. "We needed a miracle to win and we're going to have to play better."

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On the bright side, in contrast to Saturday's game, the team had plenty of opportunities on the offensive end, but it simply could not convert.

"We had open looks," Thompson said, "We just missed our shots. The movement on offense was much better today. Monmouth plays a great matchup zone. It's never easy to score against them."

Gloger led the team in scoring with 12 points while also pulling down seven boards. Robins dumped in 11 before making his early exit and Wente finished with nine points, eight rebounds, five assists and four steals.

Making his collegiate debut, freshman point guard Scott Greenman played 12 strong minutes while scoring six points on 2-3 shooting.

The freshman also pulled down one rebound and did not turn the ball over.

On a more serious note for the team, junior forward Andre Logan missed the game due to pain in his knee.

Logan had surgery on the knee last year after he tore his ACL. He will see a doctor later in the week to undergo testing.

Junior forward Konrad Wysocki also missed the game as he continues to recover from a foot injury. The injury is expected to sideline Wysocki through the month of December.