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Charleston (14-5, 3-3 CAA) at Hofstra (16-3, 6-0 CAA) – 4:00 PM EST (Pride Productions/caa.tv)
Today’s UTR Game of the Day takes us to Long Island (specifically Hempstead, New York) where the Hofstra Pride will play host to the Charleston Cougars in a pivotal Colonial matchup. Charleston is coming off of a tough loss at Northeastern Thursday night, but are already in a hole after somewhat surprising losses against Drexel and James Madison so far. The Drexel loss was especially painful considering Drexel’s Troy Harper hit three consecutive free throws with a second remaining to stun the Cougars in Charleston. Charleston has two main go-to players: Grant Riller (21.7 PPG) and Jarrell Brantley (18.9 PPG, 7.8 RPG).
Hofstra comes into this afternoon’s matinee with a thirteen-game winning streak that includes six straight league wins along with wins against two other teams favored to win their respective leagues: Stony Brook (in the America East) and Rider (Metro Atlantic). There’s no shame in their only three losses, either – an overtime loss at VCU and games at Maryland and Marshall. Justin Wright-Foreman averages a whopping 26.5 points a game for the Pride.
FRIDAY RECAP
-Maryland passed another tough road test with a 75-61 win in Columbus last night against Ohio State. The Big Ten now has 3 tiers of teams – 3 potential protected seeds in Michigan, Michigan State and Maryland in the top tier. Ohio State is in the second tier of teams (including Indiana, Purdue, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin) that are also NCAA contenders as well.
-Buffalo continues to impress after a relatively easy win at home against Eastern Michigan. The Bulls have two pretty winnable games at Northern Illinois and Kent State next week.
-Even when Xavier brought their B+ game to Villanova, it was still not enough to counter a hot-shooting Wildcat team that ended up hitting 15 3-point shots in a ten-point victory at home. While Villanova continues to look like a team that has a shot at winding up as a protected seed, it puts Xavier in absolute must-win mode at home against Providence and Marquette next week if they are to harbor any postseason hopes.