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 quarterfinal quadruple-header on Sunday.
The food selections today were much better. Make-your-own tacos for lunch were good (although the lack of taco shells did not help), and BBQ sandwiches/cheesecake for dinner was delicious. Let’s tip it off:
GAME #1: Monmouth-Charleston
Monmouth G Xander Rice came out firing in the 1st half with a pair of threes, a floater off the glass, and a layup. However, Charleston F Frankie Policelli one-upped him with a trio of trifectas as the Cougars got out to a big 44-29 halftime lead. His fellow big men poured it on in the 2nd half as Ben Burnham made a couple of long-range shots and Ante Brzovic made a bunch of short jump shots as Charleston cruised to an 83-59 win and will play again on Monday night.
In the postgame press conference I asked Burnham what it was like to play with Policelli this year after playing against him in last year’s tourney. He joked that he would rather have Frankie on his team then play against him and that he likes having him on his side:
GAME #2: Towson-UNCW
UNCW F Trazarien White came out white-hot in the 1st stanza with a couple of threes, a couple of layups, and a total of 18 PTS in just 16 minutes (while the rest of his team scored a combined 12 PTS) as the Seahawks SHOULD have held a 30-26 lead at the break. Fortunately for sports highlight shows, Towson FR Tyler Tejada decided to make the shot of his life by banking in a 75-footer to end the half (go to the 1:05 mark here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqQCMilJxVI)! UNCW G Shykeim Phillips almost singlehandedly kept his team close in the 2nd half by knocking down a baseline leaner and a 3 from the top of key but Towson G Dylan Williamson almost made more FTs (11) then the entire UNCW team (12) as the Tigers pulled away to win 66-56. Due to a hard foul right before the buzzer the coaches were the only ones to shake hands as the players headed to their respective locker room to avoid any incidents.
I wondered how Williamson was able to shake off the past 5 weeks when he only made 4-12 FTs by converting 17-18 this weekend. Towson coach Pat Skerry said that it was because he is a confident kid: even though they “have had some adventures at the line this year,” the whole team shot them well during the tourney:
GAME #3: Stony Brook-Drexel
After the 1st 2 games were decided by double-digits you just had a feeling that the 3rd game would be the charm…and it was. Stony Brook G Dean Noll and Drexel F Lucas Monroe 1st played against each other when Monroe’s Penn team had a 6-PT win at Noll’s Cornell team back in 2020. Their Ivy League rivalry has continued in the CAA and Drexel got out to a 36-28 lead at halftime. Drexel SR G Luke House made 3 shots from behind the arc in the 1st half…and 3 more from behind the arc in the 2nd half en route to a career-high 28 PTS. I assumed that Stony Brook would run out of gas after playing last night but C Keenan Fitzmorris ended up scoring 16 PTS off the bench, SR G Aaron Clarke made a ton of midrange jumpers, and SR F Chris Maidoh had a huge dunk to tie it with 12 seconds left and send the game to OT. The game went back and forth in OT with Maidoh hitting the offensive glass for multiple put-backs, and Clarke made yet another jump shot with 9 seconds left to send us into a deep sleep…I mean double-OT! It was Drexel who ran out of glass as Maidoh set a career-high with 25 PTS and Clarke made a bank shot and resulting FT to give his team a 3-PT lead with 8.2 seconds left and give himself a career-high 27 PTS as Stony Brook won this thriller by the score of 91-88.
I could not believe that Clarke was able to sit upright after playing more than 48 minutes. He smiled and explained that March is the time to “rev it up” and that he will be fine thanks to his team’s great trainers:
GAME #4: Delaware-Hofstra
I am sure that it was a great game…but after attending 8 games this weekend I am calling it a wrap for tonight, check back tomorrow for the semifinal doubleheader.