Jackson-Cartwright carries Penn past Monmouth

WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J. - Miles Jackson-Cartwright erupted for 25 points Tuesday night as Penn picked up its first victory with a 79-73 win over Monmouth at the Hawks' MAC arena.

Jackson-Cartwright, a 6-foot-3 senior guard from Van Nuys, Calif., lit up the scoreboard by making 7 of 11 shots. He was 5 for 8 from the three-point line. He did it all in just 26 minutes since he sat for long stretches with foul trouble.

"I was lucky," he said. "I kept getting good looks; the shots were there."

Still, the Quakers' win was never easy and left coach Jerome Allen less than happy.

"You can't turn the ball over, you've got to keep people out of the paint, and you've got to rebound better," Allen said. "All three of these things, we did a horrible job. We got a little lucky. I don't want to win games because of luck."

The Quakers (1-1) turned the ball over 22 times and were outrebounded by 49-43.

Penn led, 41-33, after a streaky first half in which the Hawks ran out to a 12-2 lead only to see the Quakers retaliate with 16 straight points.

Monmouth (1-1) came back to tie it at 59 in the second half. However, down the stretch, Penn scored five of the last seven points in the final 28 seconds to prevail.

Jackson-Cartwright got solid support from 6-11 center Darien Nelson-Henry (14 points, 11 rebounds) and guard Tony Hicks (13 points, eight rebounds.

Junior Andrew Nicholas led Monmouth with 19 points.

Penn returns home to face Penn State on Saturday at 2 p.m.