Salnave scores 34 to lift Monmouth past Fairfield 69-45

WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J. -- Ray Salnave drilled 5 of 6 3-points and scored a career-high 34 points and Monmouth rolled past Fairfield 69-45 on Wednesday night.

George Papas and Deion Hammond each added 10 points for the Hawks (18-12, 12-7 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference) and Mustapha Traore snared 10 rebounds.

Salnave was 12-of-17 shooting. He scored 23 points on 9-of-12 shooting, including making all five of his 3-pointers, to help the Hawks take a 39-31 lead.

Monmouth held Fairfield to 22% shooting, the best defense by the Hawks this year while the Stags had a season-worst 14 points in the second half, making just 2 of 21 shots. Fairfield missed its first seven shots of the second half, running its string to 12-straight misses, and missed its last seven shots of the game.

Landon Taliaferro had 18 points for the Stags (11-19, 7-12), whose losing streak stretched to four games. Taj Benning added six rebounds. Vincent Eze had 10 rebounds.

Fairfield defeated Monmouth 55-53 on Feb. 4. Monmouth finishes out the regular season against Siena at home on Friday. Fairfield finishes out the regular season against Manhattan on the road on Friday.

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Elements of this story were generated by Automated Insights, http://www.automatedinsights.com/ap, using data from STATS LLC, https://www.stats.com