Monmouth basketball falls to No. 14 St. John’s in season opener | 5 takeaways

The Monmouth men’s basketball team came away with a mixed bag of bright spots and concerns but ultimately lost the season opener 78-61 to St. John’s, No. 14 in the USA Today Coaches’ Poll, Monday night inside Carnesecca Arena in Queens, New York.

The Red Storm, coming off back-to-back Big East regular season and tournament championship sweeps, got off to a fast start with Auburn transfer Keyshawn Hall scoring their first seven points. Hall scored 20 of his 26 points in the first half. Still, Monmouth battled it out with several spans of good possessions.

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More: Monmouth basketball wins exhibition, next is opener vs. No. 14 St. John’s | 3 takeaways

The starting five for Monmouth was Jakai Sanders – who had a team-high 17 points – Lureon Walker, Ashton Walker, Stefanos Spartalis and Stephen Osei. Stefanos Marjanovic came off the bench. Torrey Brooks Jr. was inactive.

St. John’s was up 45-29 at halftime but Monmouth won the second half (34-33) and was able to bring the margin down to 12 with nine minutes left.

“The first six minutes of the game we got blitzed,” Monmouth coach King Rice said. “We knew that was going to be the plan for (St. John’s coach Rick Pitino), that’s what he does, he tries to blitz you at the beginning of the game. Then he blitz you at halftime. The blitz at the beginning puts us down so much, and then we settled in. And then I thought if we can get it to 12, 10, it might get coach to yelling at people and maybe their kids get a little messed up. Tonight was their night. Those kids are huge.”

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“I know we didn’t get the win, but they didn’t get how they were supposed to do us either,” Rice said.

Monmouth’s Jakai Sanders against St. John’s (Nov. 2, 2026)

5 takeaways:

1. Jakai Sanders and Ashton Walker were bright spots

Despite the blowout loss, the back court of Monmouth did show signs of promise and it started with transfer guards Sanders and Ashton Walker. Both were able to get…

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Publish date : 2026-11-03 02:41:00

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