By Kevin O’Rourke

WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J. – James Hett stood at the free throw line with 3.9 seconds remaining and Monmouth trailing Quinnipiac by one point. The Hawks had surrendered a 14-point second half lead but could still squeak out a win if the senior point guard hit both. They could force overtime if he hit one. Instead, Hett missed both, allowing the Bobcats to escape with a 72-70 victory in front of 1,003 fans Thursday at the MAC.

“Foul shooting’s foul shooting,” said Monmouth head coach Dave Calloway, whose team misfired on its last seven attempts from the charity stripe and ranks last in the NEC in the category for the season. “If we make three more foul shots along the way, it’s a different game.”

Monmouth (5-10, 1-2) had one last opportunity but couldn’t get a shot off as Nick DelTufo’s half court inbounds pass was stolen by Lance Brown just before the buzzer. The miscue was one of 17 turnovers, 11 of which came in the second half and helped to spearhead the Quinnipiac (10-3, 2-1) rally.

“We’ve had a lot of games that have gone that way this year, down to the last possession and you come up one short, one possession short,” Calloway said. “We’ll look back at the tape tonight and re-hash some of those possessions, especially the last couple of minutes. If we could have done one thing better, we win the game.”

The loss was especially disheartening because of the way the Hawks responded in their first game since learning that Will Campbell, Matt Pritchett, Gary Cox, and Jordan Davis were suspended indefinitely for academic reasons, leaving the team with only nine active players.

“We were very energized,” said sophomore forward Ed Waite, who finished with 18 points and 7 rebounds. “We knew that we were short-handed and everybody had to step up.”

No one rose to the occasion more than junior swing man Mike Myers-Keitt, who tallied a game-high 21 points and keyed an 18-0 first half run that turned an eight-point deficit into a ten-point advantage.

Myers-Keitt book-ended the surge with a pair of explosive drives to the basket and continued his hot shooting after intermission, recording the first eight points of the half to stake Monmouth to a 52-38 lead with 16:51 remaining.

Quinnipiac then began to creep their way back into the game with a 7-0 spurt led by sophomore forward Jamee Jackson.

The Saint Anthony’s product was forced into starting action after reigning NEC player of the year Justin Rutty was sidelined with a right elbow injury suffered in the afternoon shoot-around. Jackson took advantage of the starting nod, hitting for a career-high 20 points on an array of jumpers, put backs, and back-to-the-basket post moves.

“He was huge for us,” said Quinnipiac head coach Tom Moore. “We couldn’t have asked for a bigger performance from him. I think the biggest thing I liked from him tonight was he had foul trouble throughout the game and mentally he was the same player every time I put him back in there and that’s important for a young big guy.”

Behind Waite, though, Monmouth answered and maintained the lead until the final minute. He swished home a pair of difficult fade-away jumpers out of the post and even poured in a three-pointer – just his third of the season – to keep the Bobcats at bay.

But Quinnipiac wouldn’t be denied, especially on the offensive glass, where they collected 20 offensive rebounds en route to a 39-26 overall advantage and an 18-8 mark in second chance points.

“Twenty offensive rebounds without Justin is pretty impressive,” said Moore, whose Bobcats enjoy the fifth best rebounding margin in the country “It’s become the hallmark of our program. … We can eliminate some bad shot selection and some lack of poise with the ball by swarming the offensive glass like we do.”

Unlike Monmouth, Quinnipiac was also able to sink clutch free throws. Junior guard James Johnson hit a pair to tie the score with 1:54 remaining and Jackson – a 31% shooter from the line entering play – hit the back-end of two to provide the final outcome.

“I’m very proud of our guys heart tonight with getting the news this afternoon that Justin wasn’t going to play,” said Moore of the rebound win after a disappointing home defeat to Wagner on Monday. “It made us a young team over the course of a couple of hours. We were not as aesthetically pleasing tonight from a technical point of view. I thought we did a lot of things fundamentally poorly but we showed a lot of resolve.”

Both teams head back to the hardwood on Saturday. Monmouth wraps up a three-game home stand against Sacred Heart. Quinnipiac rounds out their Jersey swing at Fairleigh Dickinson.

Follow Kevin O’Rourke on Twitter: @kevinoru10