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 ACC 1st round tripleheader AND CAA title game on Tuesday.
It is not often that you get to attend 2 difference conference tourneys in the same city on the same day: challenge accepted! It has been a long day so let’s summarize.
Food: $30 food vouchers (plural) from the generous ACC bought me plenty of goodies: hot dog/cheese curds/cheeseburger/fries/pepperoni pizza/more calories than I care to count.
GAME #1: Notre Dame-Georgia Tech
Notre Dame FR PG Markus Burton might be the smallest player on the court at 5’11” but good luck stopping him as he made a trio of trifectas and scored a majority of his 21 PTS in the 1st half. Georgia Tech used the inside game of Baye Ndongo and the outside game of Naithan George to try to keep up but it was the Irish who took a 45-35 halftime lead. Ndongo/George kept scoring in the 2nd half (finishing with a combined 46 PTS/9 REB/9 AST), and they even fought all they way back to take a 78-77 lead with just over 4 minutes to play. However, Notre Dame coach Micah Shrewsberry’s son Braeden did his father proud with a team-high 23 PTS/5-8 3PM and the Irish eyes were smiling due to an 84-80 win over the Rambling Wreck and a date with Wake Forest on Wednesday afternoon.
I missed the postgame press conference due to multiple scheduled interviews.
GAME #2: NC State-Louisville
I am sure that it was a great game (not really, just a high-scoring affair), but I had to hop on the metro to get to the CAA tourney title game
GAME #3: Boston College-Miami
See above.
CAA TITLE GAME: Stony Brook-Charleston
Charleston coach Pat Kelsey was trying to win his 2nd tourney title in a row:
Unfortunately nobody told Stony Brook SR G Tyler Stephenson-Moore, who made 4 shots from behind the arc as part of a 17-PT 1st half that gave Stony Brook a surprising 40-35 halftime lead:
Stony Brook blew a 15-PT 1st half lead in a 6-PT home loss to Charleston back on January 6th so the Cougars were not afraid. Charleston missed a ton of layups all night long but shot a sizzling 7-10 from long-distance in the 2nd half including 3 from the Australian Sensation Reyne Smith:
It was such an exciting 2nd stanza that even Charleston’s mascot was trying to find a place to sit down and catch his breath:
The Seawolves refused to give in, as SR G Aaron Clarke (who went scoreless in the 1st half) knocked down some clutch threes and then drove in for a layup to tie it at 73-all with 2:12 left in regulation, and when neither team could score in the final 2 minutes we were heading for OT!
Both teams were running out of steam in the extra session but Smith outscored the entire Stony Brook team by himself (8-6) as the Cougars held on for dear life to win it 82-79 and clinch their 2nd straight tourney trophy:
That is a wrap for tonight, check back tomorrow for some great Charleston celebration photos and an ACC quadruple-header.