Kenny's late hoop sends Monmouth to the Big Dance

HACKENSACK, N.J. (AP) -- If anyone knows about improbable

finishes, it's Chris Kenny.

The Monmouth guard was on the court as a freshman when

Princeton's Ed Persia heaved an 80-foot shot at the buzzer to

defeat the Hawks. In the Northeast Conference championship game

Wednesday night, it was Kenny's turn to write a storybook ending.

Kenny scored on a driving layup with 2 seconds to play after a

missed free throw, lifting Monmouth over Fairleigh Dickinson 49-48

to earn the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament for

the second time in three years.

"I never dreamed I'd be in this situation," said Kenny, who

said the last game-winning shot he could remember making was in

middle school. "It was like one of those 'Rocky' movies, where we

fought all game and in the final round we threw the knockout

punch."

Bernell Murray missed the front end of a one-and-one with 8.3

seconds left after Monmouth's Dejan Delic made two free throws to

bring the Hawks to 48-47 with 8.5 seconds remaining.

Marques Alston rebounded the miss and fed Tyler Azzarelli, who

quickly got the ball to Kenny streaking down the court. Monmouth

coach Dave Calloway elected not to call a timeout before Murray's

free throw to set up a play.

"We called a 'scramble,' which basically means 'Just go!'

Calloway said. "My thinking was, why let the defense get set up?

We weren't going to a better shot than we would in transition."

After a timeout, Fairleigh Dickinson was unable to get a shot

off at the buzzer.

Alston had 14 points and 10 rebounds to lead Monmouth (18-14),

which became the first NEC team seeded lower than one or two to win

the conference tournament since Mount St. Mary's in 1999. Andrea

Crosariol led top-seeded Fairleigh Dickinson (20-11) with 12 points

and 12 rebounds.

Monmouth reached the NCAA Tournament for the second time in

three years. In 2004, the Hawks lost to Mississippi State 85-52 in

the first round. Fairleigh Dickinson was trying to return to the

tournament for the second year in a row.

No NEC team has won a first-round NCAA Tournament game in 23

tries. Robert Morris won a play-in game to earn a No. 12 seed in

1983 when the tournament featured a 48-team field.

On Wednesday, neither team led by more than three points in the

game's final 15 minutes. Fairleigh Dickinson hung in despite one

field goal in the first 10 minutes of the second half as Monmouth

made up a nine-point deficit and led 39-36 with 12 minutes left.

Monmouth scored 15 points in the second half.

"Their defensive scheme was excellent," Fairleigh Dickinson

coach Tom Green said. "They forced us into bad shots, and we

hurried some shots. My hat's off to them -- they were well

prepared."

Still, Fairleigh Dickinson led 48-45 with less than 20 seconds

remaining after Michael Peeples' driving basket. But Peeples then

fouled Delic, who had missed four of five attempts in the game to

that point, and Delic made both to make the score 48-47.

When Murray was fouled, Green said he decided not to call

timeout to set his defense because his assistants assured him the

players knew their assignments. But when Murray missed, Kenny had a

virtually unobstructed path to the basket.

"After the rebound came down, all hell kind of broke loose, and

the rest was history," Green said.

Monmouth trailed 33-24 at halftime but erased that deficit in

the first five minutes as 7-foot-2, 320-pound center John Bunch

began to assert himself with two blocks and a score in the lane

against the 7-foot Crosariol. Bunch finished with six points, six

blocks and seven rebounds.

Alston brought the visitors to their feet with 14:58 left when

he faked out Gordon Klaiber on the wing and dunked over Crosariol

and completed the three-point play to tie the score at 36. Bunch

then gave the Hawks their first lead since early in the game when

he dunked off a feed from Azzarelli with 13:07 left.

Fairleigh Dickinson led by as many as 12 midway through the

first half. The Hawks stayed in the game by making five of seven

3-pointers in the half, but were 4-for-24 on two-point attempts.

The shot clock above one basket malfunctioned late in the first

half, forcing officials to put a clock on the floor near FDU's

basket for the second half.