Conference tournaments are about basketball but also so much more: the fans, parents, bands, cheerleaders, etc. The CAA Tournament is taking place this weekend in Washington, DC, and we could not be more excited to be there in person! HoopsHD will be covering all the angles so you can look forward to an abundance of articles in the days ahead. Jon Teitel continues our coverage with a recap of the 1st round doubleheader on Friday.
I was not even sure if they would feed us during the 1st round games but it was delicious AND healthy: gourmet chicken Caesar salad with multiple veggies and 2 kinds of dressing! Let’s tip it off:
GAME #1: William & Mary vs. North Carolina A&T
North Carolina A&T has a very balanced offense and it showed during the 1st 20 minutes as big men Nikolaos Chitikoudis/Evan Joyner made a ton of layups/scoops while SG Landon Glasper made everything else including a pair of threes. William & Mary SG Gabe Dorsey already set a school record this year with 104 3PM in 1 season and continued his hot shooting with a trio of trifectas in the 1st half to help his team build a 35-30 halftime lead. Aggie FR Jalal McKie tried to keep his team in it by himself as he made multiple jumpers/layups but it is hard to win when you score ZERO bench PTS (due in large part to multiple injured players). Dorsey and his backcourt mate Trey Moss kept knocking down threes all afternoon, combining to make 8 while their opponents only made 3-19. The star of the day was Tribe SO Chase Lowe, as the 6’5” SO converted multiple and-1 opportunities and put up a sensational stat line of 18 PTS/16 REB/6 AST (becoming only the 6th player in the nation this year to reach those numbers!) in addition to 2 BLK/2 STL on defense while playing only 31 minutes as his team cruised to a 79-62 win and a date with Towson on Saturday afternoon.
In the postgame press conference I asked Lowe if that was the best performance of his career. He agreed that it was, “especially with the win on top of that,” as he was able to get his teammates involved while scoring as well.
I told W&M coach Dane Fischer that I could not believe that Lowe did all that while standing just 6’5”. He chuckled and confirmed that Lowe is 1 of the most unique players he has ever coached. He is “a winner who has winning qualities,” just plays to his identity, and is terrific at getting to the foul line.
GAME #2: Hampton-Elon
The Hampton crowd won the award for best vocal support of the day. When 6’9” FR Jerry Deng scored a basket (which included a pair of dunks and a corner 3 in the 1st 20 minutes) the fans would start chanting “JERRY, JERRY!”: love it! The Pirates finished dead-last in the conference this year but perhaps they were saving their best for the postseason as they took a 34-24 halftime lead into the locker room. Elon refused to throw in the towel, as JR big man Sam Sherry dominated the paint including a REB/tip-in to give his team a 52-51 lead with 4:16 left. The game went back and forth in the final 4 minutes, and his teammate TK Simpkins drilled a 3 with 25 seconds left to retake the lead 55-54. Hampton huddled up with 7.9 seconds left to draw up the final play and some of their guys were screaming at each other. Pirate SO Kyrese Mullen had missed the previous 4 games with a shoulder injury but finished his triumphant return by banking in a short jumper with 6.3 seconds left to take a 56-55 lead. The Phoenix brought the ball up court and got the ball to FR Isaac Harrell but he missed a 3 at the buzzer, so it is Hampton who will face Delaware on Saturday night.
In the postgame press conference I asked Mullen about both his shoulder and his game-winner. He confirmed that his shoulder was up to par but did not count it as a game-winner because is just put his team up 1. I hoped that Hampton coach Ed Joyner Jr. would share his secret for success in March, as he won 3 MEAC tourneys in a 6-year stretch from 2011-2016. He smiled because it seemed like those tourney wins came a long time ago and said the 2 keys are “understanding and expectations”: you need to have mental toughness because it is win-or-go-home:
That is a wrap for today but check back tomorrow for the 2nd round quadruple-header featuring both the #13 AND #14 seeds.