Box Score Monmouth hit five of their first six shots, but cooled in falling to Lawrence 87-73 at Glennie Gym.
After Wes DeClerqc and Wes Dukeman hit the Scots first two shots of the day the Scots began raining threes. Mike DeDecker, Jon Calhoun and Nick Marema followed with 3-pointers to stake Monmouth to a 13-2 lead before Lawrence began to heat up. The Vikings were especially hot from the free throw line going 31-for-35 to keep the Scots at bay in the second half.
Monmouth trialed 38-32 at halftime as saw that margin climb to 11 at 50-39 with 16:42 left in the game. Reed Goodbred’s jumper stopped the Viking run as DeDecker then scored on back-to-back possessions to trim it to 50-45. Andrew Mathison then took over cutting it to 53-1 with a bucket inside, but a trey by Lawrence opened up a 56-51 before Goodbred made good on a pair of free throws and Mathison followed with a steal and a dunk to pull Monmouth within 56-55.
That would be as close as the Scots could get when the Vikings hit 16 of their 18 free throws in the final five minutes to hold on for the win.
DeDecker finished with 17 for the Scots and Dukeman added 11.