Before the Coastal Athletic Association madness starts at CareFirst Arena in Washington, D.C., one final round of regular season games needed to be completed on Tuesday night to set the matchups for the upcoming CAA tournament.
With everyone but the second-seeded Charleston Cougars (21-10, 14-4 CAA) in action that meant a final attempt for others to either lock up better seeds or make statements heading into the CAA championship, which will start on Friday.
The top seed bounces back
The top-seeded North Carolina Wilmington Seahawks (26-5, 15-3 CAA) failed to send a message to Charleston during Sunday night’s tale of two halves, when the Cougars turned a 35-23 deficit into a three-point win with a 56-41 second half.
UNCW had already secured the No. 1 seed, but the Seahawks also wanted an outright regular season championship and achieved that with an easy 76-57 win at the 11th-seeded Elon Phoenix (14-17, 6-12 CAA). UNCW allowed just one more point than Charleston hung on the Seahawks in the second half alone, two nights earlier. The Seahawks also let Elon shoot only 31.6% (18-for-57), including just 18% (5-for-27) from 3-point range. It was a performance that helped UNCW forget its dreadful defensive effort in the second half of its prior game and which should help the Seahawks get right again before facing the eighth-seeded Stony Brook Seawolves (17-14, 9-9 CAA) or the ninth-seeded Campbell Fighting Camels (14-17, 8-10 CAA) in the CAA quarterfinals on Sunday.
Towson rallies and moves up
As the defending regular season champions and preseason favorite, the Towson Tigers (17-14, 9-9 CAA) were already the league’s most disappointing team this year. On top of that, Towson, after such high earlier hopes, was facing the prospect of finishing the regular season with a losing CAA record, while visiting Stony Brook and trailing by nine points at halftime.
But the Tigers stormed back in the second half, doubling the Seawolves, 42-21, to win, 69-57.
The victory moved both Towson and Stony Brook to different sides of the CAA tournament bracket than each had appeared to be headed to earlier.
The Tigers jumped ahead of the Seawolves to earn the No. 7 seed, while Stony Brook dropped to the eighth seed. That could be costly for Stony Brook, which beat Charleston, 112-106, in double overtime, in the highest-scoring game in conference history, at home, on Jan. 17. The Seawolves were in line to possibly meet the Cougars later on, but would now (if they can get by Campbell) have to face a UNCW team that erased a 24-point deficit by scoring 24 straight points in a four-point win at Stony Brook on Jan. 10.
In the often-unpredictable CAA, it would be interesting if Towson, which normally underachieves with a better position in March, made an unexpected, deep run as the league’s most disappointing team this time. After a nine-point home win over Charleston on Jan. 15 and a nine-point road loss at UNCW 12 days later, the Tigers will have a better chance of doing that, now being placed on the Cougars’ side of the bracket instead of lining up with the Seahawks’ side.
Bye bye, double bye, as the Hawks swoop in
Things were looking good for the Drexel Dragons (16-15, 10-8 CAA) as they were controlling their own destiny for securing the No. 4 seed and the all-important double bye, while leading, 32-22, at the Hofstra Pride (21-10, 12-6 CAA), in the final minute of the first half. That’s when things fell apart as Drexel slipped to the No. 5 seed, with a 62-51 loss and having to play an extra game in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, against the winner of 12th-seeded North Carolina A&T and 13th-seeded Northeastern, who will open the CAA tournament on Friday.
Junior guard Shane Blakeney went scoreless on five shots in the second half after leading the Dragons with 15 points of 5-of-11 shooting in the opening stanza. Meanwhile, Drexel missed 9-of-10 second-half 3-pointers after making 9-of-17 shots from behind the arc in the first half.
Getting the help they needed, the Monmouth Hawks (17-14, 11-7 CAA) took advantage, overcoming a seven-point first-half deficit at Northeastern to lead, 52-42, at halftime, before settling for an 89-83 victory and one fewer game in the CAA tournament after replacing Drexel as the tournament’s No. 4 seed.
Hofstra’s defense remains stifling, but Davis is no longer “Cruz-ing”
Already locked into the No. 3 seed, the Hofstra Pride had nothing to play for. Or, did they? Momentum can matter when competing for a conference tournament championship, and after an ugly 67-58 win over Stony Brook (which was without its leading scorer, guard Erik Pratt) on Saturday night, Hofstra raised some further concerns with a sluggish first half against Drexel.
But after the Pride scored the final four points of the first half and then started the second half with a 33-11 blitz, Hofstra restored some hope as a legitimate contender for the CAA title.
Clamping down as it has most of the season, the Pride barely supplanted Towson with a CAA-best 66.2 points allowed, edging the Tigers’ 66.3 points surrendered for the season. Hofstra also remains the CAA’s only team to allow under 40% shooting this year, at just 38.7%.
The Pride moved to an impressive 18-1 when allowing under 70 points and is now 13-0 this year when giving up fewer than 65 points.
In addition to yet another stingy defensive effort, Hofstra overcame 33.3% (10-for-30) first-half shooting to go 56% (14-for-25) in the second half.
With the victory, the Pride will roll into the nation’s capital as one of the CAA’s hottest teams, at 9-1 in its last 10 games, with the only loss in that stretch being a four-point defeat at UNCW.
All of the above sounds great on the surface, but a deeper dive reveals two possible concerns – one on each end of the floor – for Hofstra’s chances heading into the CAA tournament.
That great 18-1 mark when holding teams under 70? Well, the lone loss in those games was with leading CAA Player of the Year candidate, junior guard Cruz Davis (the CAA scoring leader, at 20.3 points per game) being held to a season-low seven points in a 66-64 home loss on Jan. 29.
That game was one of just three single-digit outputs for Davis this season. The other two were a pair of eight-point games in the Pride’s most recent two games, in which Davis shot a total of just 6-for-22. Various opponents have recently sent a flurry double teams at the likely conference Player of the Year while Hofstra has failed to counter with setting screens for Davis to free him up, rather choosing to allow Davis to figure it out by himself off the dribble.
While it says something that the Pride was able to win its last two games during Davis’ recent, sharp drop-off, what Davis has produced in his two most recent outings before the conference tournament is suddenly a huge decline from the player who has scored 20 or more points 17 different times, including four games of scoring 30 or more points this season.
One more area of trepidation for Hofstra fans could be the Pride’s potential quarterfinal matchup, either way. While Hofstra is currently the CAA’s best defensive team, the Pride looked far from that while giving up a season-high 89 points each time in January losses at the sixth-seeded William & Mary Tribe (19-11, 10-8 CAA) and at home, to Elon. Head coach Craig “Speedy” Claxton insists that those two defensive lapses were primarily because Hofstra wasn’t at full strength during a five-game losing streak that dragged down a CAA record which was otherwise a dominant 12-1. The reality of that notion may be tested when either William & Mary or Elon faces Hofstra again in the CAA quarterfinals on Sunday night.
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