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HACKENSACK, NJ (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.
NEC All-Tournament Team
Marques Alston, Monmouth (MVP)
Chris Kenny, Monmouth
Andrea Crosariol, FDU
Chad Timberlake, FDU
Jeremy Chappell, Robert Morris
2006 NEC Men’s Basketball Tournament
(all games played at home of higher seed)
Click Here For NEC Tournament Bracket
Quarterfinals
Thursday, March 2
#1 Fairleigh Dickinson def. #8 Quinnipiac, 66-65
#2 Cent. Conn. St. def. #7 Sacred Heart, 86-68
#3 Monmouth def. #6 Long Island, 74-63
#5 Robert Morris def. #4 Mount St. Mary's, 67-66
Semifinals
Sunday, March 5
#3 Monmouth 62, #2 Central Connecticut State 48
#1 Fairleigh Dickinson 71, #5 Robert Morris 55
Championship
Wednesday, March 8
#3 Monmouth 49, #1 Fairleigh Dickinson 48