The Monmouth College men’s basketball team gave up a season-high 119 points on 24 made 3-pointers and lost to Grinnell College 119-109 on Saturday afternoon. The Fighting Scots (12-10, 8-5) remain in third place in the Midwest Conference with three games to play while Grinnell is now 7-14 overall, 3-10 in MWC action.
The Scots fell behind 9-2 and then trailed 13-4 when senior Jack Hosack (St. Petersburg, Florida) scored. After being down 15-8, the Scots scored eight in a row for a 16-15 lead with Declan Flynn (Monmouth, Illinois) scoring six straight. But Grinnell hit two straight 3-pointers and the Scots didn’t lead again. The Pioneers steadily pulled away in the first half with leads of 33-23, 41-25 and 54-37. They went up by 20 at 59-39 and eventually led by 26 before taking a 72-51 lead into the locker rooms. The visitors knocked down 15-of-29 3-pointers in the first half while Flynn led the Scots with 14 points.
Grinnell started the second half with another barrage of 3-pointers, pushing the lead to 27 at 93-66 with 14:44 to play. Monmouth slowly chipped away with baskets from Flynn, Jordan Metcalf (Aledo, Illinois), David Williams (Loves Park, Illinois) and Turner Plumer (Canton, Illinois). Grinnell got the lead back to 25 with 6:11 to play and Monmouth went on a big run. Flynn cut the lead to 18 and Williams got it to 15 with 5:06 left. Flynn and Kendall Brasfield (Chicago, Illinois) scored to work the lead down to eight with 1:26 to play. Grinnell struggled at the free throw line and Monmouth got the lead down to seven with 48 seconds left, but didn’t score again as the Pioneers won 119-109.
Flynn scored a career-high 26 points, going 12-of-16 from the floor and he also grabbed nine rebounds. Williams scored 19 points while Plumer had 12, one off his season high. Metcalf had 18 points on 6-of-6 shooting and added nine rebounds.
MONMOUTH MOMENTS: Monmouth held Grinnell to 74 points at their place on Jan. 11 in an 11-point win…Grinnell scored 127 at Monmouth last season…The Scots are 8-4 in their last 12 ag home against the Pioneers…Metcalf has scored at least 10 points in 18 games this season…Monmouth shot 66.7% from the floor in the game…The Scots were 19-for-27 from the free throw line…Grinnell scored 36 points off 24 Monmouth turnovers…They were 24-for-43 (55.8%) from 3-point range…Grinnell scored a season-high in conference play…The Scots had 68 points in the paint to 30 for the Pioneers…Williams dished out a career-high eight assists…The Scots honored Metcalf, Hosack, Francois Boney (St. Thomas, Virgin Islands) and Yuvraj Sidhu (Coppell, Texas) in a pregame Senior Day ceremony…All four seniors started and scored…Monmouth hosts rival Knox on Wednesday following the 5:30 p.m. game between the Scots and Prairie Fire.
***Recap and photo courtesy of Monmouth College***
