CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa - The Coe College men's basketball team secured its fifth consecutive win to open the season on Wednesday, defeating non-conference opponent Monmouth 73-68 at Kohawk Arena. Coe raced out to an eight-point lead at the half but was forced to fend off a late rally attempt from the visitors as the Kohawks held on to win 73-68.
Cael Schmitt, who scored a season-high 17 points, led the offense for Coe as the sophomore was 6-of-10 from the floor and 1-of-2 from beyond.
Ray Thrapp had his fifth-consecutive double-digit performance, adding 15 points and eight boards to help Coe to victory. The win is the fifth straight for Coe as it improves to 5-0 on the season while Monmouth drops to 0-3 overall.
COE 73 - MONMOUTH 68
Game Facts
- The Kohawks scored the first six points of the game to open up a quick lead in the game but the Fighting Scots battled back to make it 11-7 with 14:10 left in the opening period. Coe scored eight of the next 13 points in the game to push the lead to seven points as the hosts led 19-12 after a layup from TJ Schnurr. The lead continued to grow for the Kohawks as they again outscored the Fighting Scots 10-7 over the next four-plus minutes as they led 27-19 with 6:12 left in the first.
- Monmouth quickly answered with six unanswered points, immediately cutting its deficit to just two points with 3:21 remaining in the half. The Kohawks responded right back to the spurt, scoring seven-straight points to increase the lead to nine, the largest of the game but a free throw for the visitors made it 34-26 at the half.
- The Fighting Scots scored the opening four points of the half, cutting the lead to just four points less than a minute into the period. The Kohawks showed no panic despite their lead evaporating, ripping off a 14-4 spurt which included 3s from Sam Auen and Jacob Robertson as the pair helped increase the lead past double-figures.
- The visitors refused to fight despite their largest deficit of the contest, trading buckets with the Kohaws over the next few minutes to keep themselves in striking distance of Coe. The Eagles then turned on the pressure with 9:33 to play, scoring eight-straight points to quickly cut the deficit to just nine with 7:30 remaining. Coe scored the next five points in the game as Thrapp added five on his own but Monmouth continued to scrap, getting the lead back to 10 with 1:10 to play.
- The visitors then used an 11-5 run over the next 50 seconds of the game, quickly cutting Coe's lead to just four points with 11 ticks left on the clock. The Kohawks managed to hang on in the end, breaking down the full-court-press from Monmouth while converting a few free throws to see out the victory.
Up next: Coe is back in action on Saturday, November 20 when it travels to Graceland University for a matchup at 3 PM.
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