HIGHLIGHTS

PORT HURON, Mich. – No. 11 Macomb Men's Basketball snapped a two-game skid in style with an 82-81 top-10 road win over No. 8 St. Clair County Community College (SC4) Wednesday (Jan. 25) in Port Huron. The win lifts the 11^th ranked Monarchs to 2-2 in MCCAA East action and 14-5 overall. SC4 falls to 16-3 overall and 2-2 in the MCCAA East.

The Monarchs started strong and led by as many as 21 points midway through the opening half when Juwan Maxey (Detroit, Mich./Renaissance) knocked down a step back 3-pointer to give Macomb a 34-13 lead. While Maxey's triple put the Monarchs up big, the first half belonged to the hot hand of Linden Holder (Warren, Mich./De La Salle). The former De La Salle standout was red-hot in the opening half on his way to 12 points at the break on a perfect 4-of-4 effort from downtown.

Despite the strong shooting first half by Holder and the Monarchs, SC4 kept battling and closed the half on a mini run to cut the Blue & White's lead to 11 at the break, 48-37.

The Monarchs shot 58% from the floor in the first half, sparked by a 62.5% effort from 3-point territory.

Second half action saw eighth-ranked SC4 climb all the way back into the contest, eventually slicing the Monarch lead to one point in the final minute of play. While the offense led the way early, the Monarchs defense, keyed by several blocks from Aidan Rubio (Flint, Mich./Goodrich/DME Academy), made winning plays down the stretch to hold off SC4 for the thrilling 82-81 road win.

Holder led five Monarchs in double figures with 20 points on 5-of-7 shooting from 3-point land. Maxey and Rubio dropped in 13 points each, while Jaylen Daughtery (Oak Park, Mich./Ferndale) and Tymias Williams (Macomb, Mich./Dakota) followed with 12 and 11 points, respectively.

Daughtery also hauled in a game-high 10 rebounds for his first double-double of the campaign. Tamario Adley (Detroit, Mich./De La Salle) dished out a team-best four assists and Kareem Aburashed (West Bloomfield, Mich./Country Day) posted eight points and four rebounds in an efficient 11 minutes of action.

After back-to-back road games against top-15 opponents, the No. 11 Monarchs return to their home hardwood Saturday (Jan. 28) to host Oakland Community College. Tip-off against the Raiders is slated for 3 p.m. at the Sports & Expo Center in Warren.

Noteworthy: Wednesday's road win over No. 8 SC4 was the first ranked road win for second-year head coach Hassan Nizam and the Monarchs' second victory over a top-10 team this season (No. 3 South Suburban, Dec. 30).