Although I’m still reveling in my major student loan announcement, after a short delay at the bottom of this entry are 40 pictures from last Saturday night’s Monmouth University vs. University of Hartford men’s basketball game. This turned out to be one hell of a game, but started off pretty dismally for the Hawks. By the way, both teams are named “Hawks” so when I refer to “Hawks” I’m talking about Monmouth, not Hartford. Oh, and this is an even greater example of why the school should have changed their name to the Nighthawks a few years back when the proposal was on the table.

But I digress…

The game on Saturday night was awesome. Even though these aren’t the two most talented teams out there or the two most successful teams playing in either of their conferences, they managed to make an otherwise uneventful game pretty exciting. After about thirteen minutes of play, Monmouth was down 15 – 0. As most of the fans sitting around me were saying, “Is this a college basketball game or are we at some high school game?” How does a team not score a point on its home court for the majority of the first half?

Well, I’m not sure how they don’t score a point for so long, but I am sure about how they come back and win the game. They give the ball to Gary Cox. This kid is probably someone that you haven’t read much about in the local sports media and that’s because he hasn’t had the opportunity that he had the other night. Cox scored 23 points for the Hawks, who eventually came back to win the game 78 – 74. It was an absolutely amazing performance by Cox and the Hawks and a pretty horrendous outcome for Hartford. The Hartford team had some tough guys, but the Hawks played tough the entire game and, especially, during the second half. As a fan watching in the stands, I think the Hawks managed to just overwhelm the Hartford guys in the end.

Tony Graham over at the Asbury Park Press posted a great article reviewing the game. In his article he has some quotes from Head Coach Dave Calloway and some of the players. This comment from Cox stood out to me:

We didn’t have any points when were were down 15 but I still thought we were in the game. I know how hard we play defense and we were going to score some points sooner or later. When I came in I just wanted to run the offense and try not to force anything.

And that’s how you win a basketball game after being down by 15 points. You give the ball to Cox, let him run the offense for a little while, and keep playing an aggressive style of defense. Let’s see if it works again…

Below are some 40 pictures from game day. I hope you enjoy!