CAA MEN'S BASKETBALL RECAP - JAN. 16
George Mason 82, James Madison 71
Box Score
Harrisonburg, Va. - Andre Cornelius and Cam Long both tied career highs and the Patriots led from start to finish as George Mason snapped its recent road woes, beating James Madison in Harrisonburg, 82-71. The Patriots led by as many as 15 and as few as three late in the second half but a technical on the JMU fans helped Mason stymie a Dukes rally. With the win, the Patriots remained in first place in the Colonial Athletic Association.
Ahead 66-62 with 5:13 to play, Denzel Bowles went to the line to shoot two free throws. Just before his first attempt, a James Madison fan threw food onto the court. The fan was removed from the arena, Bowles first attempt was taken away and Long shot a pair of technical fouls to put the Patriots ahead by six. The Dukes pulled to within three with 3:27 to play but Mason went on a 7-0 run that helped ice the win.
Long had 24 points, the third time he's reached that mark in his career and he added three rebounds and three assists. Cornelius had 19 points on 7 of 9 shooting including 3 of 5 from 3-point range. Ryan Pearson had 10 points, six rebounds and four assists while Mike Morrison had nine points, four rebounds, four assists, two steals and a block while playing excellent defense on Bowles, who entered the game averaging 23.4 points 10.3 rebounds. He finished with 15 points and five rebounds. Julius Wells led JMU with 21 points.
The Patriots (11-7, 6-1) opened the game on a 17-4 run that saw Andre Cornelius hit a pair of 3-pointers and a fastbreak layup in the first four minutes. Cam Long added a 3-pointers and Luke Hancock's alley-oop dunk on an inbound play capped the run. From that point until the end of the half, the Dukes (8-9, 2-5) outplayed the Patriots, outscoring Mason 27-19 to make it a 36-31 halftime lead. James Madison outrebounded Mason 14-8 and the Patriots had no offensive boards while JMU had six.
Mason has won 21 of the past 26 games between the rivals as well as 12 of the past 13. Mason will return to action on Tuesday when the Patriots play the second of three straight road games. Mason will play at Hofstra at 7 p.m. that night in a game televised on ESPNU and broadcast on WTNT 570 AM.
Towson 71, Delaware 68
Box Score
NEWARK, Del. - Senior forward Calvin Lee's first career "double double" couldn't have come at a better time as it gave the Tigers their first Colonial Athletic Association victory of the season, a 71-68 win over the University of Delaware at the Bob Carpenter Center on Saturday afternoon.
The Tigers, who improve to 4-12 overall and 1-6 in the CAA, rallied from a seven-point deficit midway through the second half to earn their fourth straight win over the Blue Hens.
Meanwhile, the Blue Hens drop their fifth straight game and are now 5-13 overall and 1-6 in the CAA.
"The kids have worked so hard and even though they came back, we didn't panic," Towson Coach Pat Kennedy said. "Calvin has played well all season. He had a big game against Miami earlier this season and had another big game today."
After the Blue Hens took a quick 2-0 lead just nine seconds into the first half, the Tigers responded with an 11-0 run for a nine-point lead they did not relinquish for the remainder of the period.
The Tigers, who had a 38-33 advantage at the intermission, led by as many as 11 points when junior forward Brian Morris scored on a lay-up with 15:05 remaining, giving Towson a 15-4 cushion.
Lee led the Tigers' charge in the opening 20 minutes, scoring 13 points with 8 rebounds. He was instrumental in the Tigers' early run, scoring seven of the Tigers' 11 points.
The Tigers extended their advantage to 43-37 early in the second half before the Blue Hens responded by going on a 13-4 run of their own, taking a 50-47 advantage with 13:53 remaining in the period.
Delaware built a seven-point lead with 9:58 remaining before the Tigers began to make a comeback, using a 17-9 spurt to regain the advantage at 68-67 with 2:42 left on a baseline jumper by Lee.
After the teams exchanged a free throw, the Tigers clinched the victory when Morris and junior Robert Nwankwo each made one of two free throws. Delaware had one last chance to tie the game but junior guard Jawan Carter's three-point attempt sailed wide at the final buzzer.
Lee scored 21 points and added a career-high 10 rebounds while making 9 of 13 shots from the floor. Meanwhile, Nwankwo tallied his sixth "double double" of the season by scoring 12 points with 10 rebounds.
Junior guard Alphonso Dawson led the Blue Hens in the loss, scoring 16 points with seven rebounds. He became the 26th player in Delaware history to score 1,000 career points on a jumper early in the second half.
The Tigers will continue their quick two-game road trip on Monday night when they travel to Saint Joseph's for a 7 p.m. match-up against the Hawks. The game will be broadcast in the Baltimore area on WTMD-FM 89.7.
Northeastern 79, UNC Wilmington 56
Box Score
BOSTON, Mass. - The Northeastern University men's basketball team shot 50 percent from the field and received points from all 14 players that got into the game in a 79-56 rout of UNC Wilmington Saturday at Matthews Arena. The Huskies have now won nine consecutive games for the first time since 1987 and improved to 11-7 overall, 6-1 in the CAA.
"It was a team effort," said Northeastern head coach Bill Coen. "We got rebounds from everybody up and down the lineup. Everybody got in the game and got a chance to contribute in one way or another, and I think that type of effort is only going to make us better."
The nine-game winning streak is the program's first since an 11-game winning stretch from Feb. 7, 1987 to March 7, 1987. Only five NU teams have had longer winning streaks than the current team's run. The six-game winning streak in conference play is the team's longest since joining the CAA in 2005.
Chaisson Allen led Northeastern with 14 points and tied a season high with seven assists. Nkem Ojougboh added 12 points and two blocks while Manny Adako chipped in 10 points. With the game in control throughout, head coach Bill Coen used much of his bench. All 14 players scored, including Joel Smith, who had a career-high eight points.
After an early 2-2 tie, the Huskies took the lead for good with a 25-5 run that started at 18:00 and ended at 6:54. During that stretch, the Seahawks were just 2-for-15 from the field and had committed five turnovers. The Huskies got their lead up to 23 points before settling for a 20-point halftime advantage, 41-21.
Northeastern shot 56.7 percent (17-for-30) in the first half while UNC Wilmington (6-11, 2-5 CAA) shot just 30.4 percent (7-for-23). The Seahawks committed 10 first-half turnovers, and the Huskies had eight assists to just two turnovers.
In the second half, the Huskies exploded out of the game on a 15-4 run to put the game out of reach for good. Allen drained a three-pointer at 17:44 to make it 54-25. Then UNC Wilmington's Darryl Felder was called for a foul on NU's Alwayne Bigby, drawing head coach Benny Moss' ire. He was given a technical foul, and Matt Janning made one of two free throws followed by Bigby making one of two free throws, giving Northeastern a 31-point lead, 56-25, with 16:51 left.
Ojougboh got the crowd fired up with an alley oop dunk off a pass from Allen with 13:48 left to make it 60-29. Northeastern had its largest lead of the game, 35 points, at 7:24 when Smith grabbed an offensive rebound and put it back in to make it 70-35.
UNC Wilmington fought hard until the end of the contest, finishing the game on a 21-9 run. Chad Tomko led the Seahawks with 17 points. John Fields added 12 points and 12 rebounds.
Northeastern will look for a perfect 10 wins a row this coming Wednesday at Towson at 7 p.m. The Huskies are back at home next Saturday, Jan. 30, against VCU at 2 p.m.
William & Mary 73, Hofstra 66
Box Score
WILLIAMSBURG, Va. - Thanks to a 12-1 in the latter stages of the second half, the William and Mary men's basketball team surged past Hofstra, 73-66, and equaled the program's best CAA start in school history on Saturday night at Kaplan Arena. Playing its second game in three days at home, the Tribe energized a season-high crowd, shooting 51.1 percent against one of the nation's stingiest defenses. The Green and Gold won for the 14th time in its last 15 games to improved to 14-3 on the year and remained in first-place in the CAA standing at 6-1, while Hofstra fell to 9-10 overall and 2-5 in league action.
Senior guard David Schneider and sophomore forward Quinn McDowell led the Tribe charge with 22 points and six rebounds each. Schneider was 6-of-11 from the floor, including a pair of 3-pointers, and a perfect 8-of-8 from the charity stripe. He added a team-best five assists and registered two steals. McDowell shot 7-of-11 with a pair of 3-pointers and 6-of-7 from the free throw line. Senior forward Steven Hess, who made his first collegiate start in the place of the injured Marcus Kitts, tallied 12 points on 5-of-7 shooting and five rebounds.
W&M shot better than 50 percent from the floor for the third straight game and did it against a Hofstra team that entered the game leading the CAA and ranked 14th nationally in field goal percentage defense only allowing opponents to shoot 38 percent from the floor. Hofstra finished the game shooting 37.5 percent (24-of-64) from the field.
The Tribe trailed by as many as seven in the second half and was down six, 57-51, following a Charles Jenkins jumper at the 8:21 mark. W&M turned it around from there as it turned up the defense and continued its impressive offensive execution. Over the next eight minutes following Jenkins' bucket, Hofstra missed 10 straight shots from the field and only scored five points, all on free throws, until a Chaz Williams' lay-up with 22 seconds remaining.
Sophomore guard Kendrix Brown and Schneider started the 12-1 spurt with back-to-back 3-pointers. A pair of McDowell free throws put the Tribe back on top 59-58 with 4:47 remaining, before the College closed out the run with back-to-back lay-ups as W&M ran its offense to perfection. Schneider found Hess on a pick-and-roll, before Hess dished to McDowell on a backdoor lay-up putting the College on top 63-58 with 3:18 to play.
After a pair of Charles Jenkins free throws narrowed the gap to three points, 63-60, with 1:32 left, Hess again found McDowell on another backdoor cut, but this time the Tribe sophomore scored the hoop and was fouled. He added the free throw, the Tribe's fifth conventional 3-point play of the night, to put the College up six and the Pride would get no closer the rest of the way. The Tribe hit seven of its final eight free throws to keep Hofstra at bay.
W&M once again did a great job of getting to the free throw line, hitting on 19-of-28 from the charity stripe, including an 80 percent (12-of-15) clip in the second half. Senior Danny Sumner turned in a nice defensive performance for the College, while guarding preseason CAA Player of the Year Charles Jenkins. While Jenkins did finish with 19 points, he was only 7-of-20 from the field. Sumner led the Tribe with three steals as well as adding five rebounds.
Hofstra led out of the gates, scoring the game's first four points and took a 19-14 lead after Jenkins' second straight 3-pointer at the 10:51 mark of the first half. W&M used an 11-0 run over a four-minute stretch to take its largest lead of the opening half at 25-19 with 7:32 left. McDowell started the run with a 3-pointers, before W&M turned back-to-back steals into two fastbreak conventional 3-point plays. After a Hess steal on the defensive end, Schneider fed ahead to McCurdy for the first 3-point play. Sumner pulled the trick on the next possession, making the steal and finding Schneider ahead for the lay-up and foul. Sophomore forward JohnMark Ludwick capped the run with an offensive putback.
Jenkins' third 3-pointer of the first half cut the deficit to one, 25-24, at the 6:44 mark, before Hofstra evened the game at 28. A Nathaniel Lester free throw put the Pride back on top, 31-30, with 3:18 left in the opening half, and despite the back-and-forth play, Hofstra maintained its one-point cushion, 38-37, into the locker room.
Back-to-back 3-pointers from Schneider and McDowell sent the Tribe to the lead less than 1:30 into the second half and forced a Hofstra timeout. The Pride would not go quickly and scored the game's next nine points to take a 47-43 lead with 13:42 remaining. Jenkins started the run with back-to-back lay-ups, before Greg Washington put the cap on it with a two-handed dunk.
The nine straight points were part of a 17-5 run for the Pride to take its largest lead of the contest. After the College closed to within 47-46 on a Hess free throw, Hofstra scored eight of the contest's next 10 points to push its lead to seven. A Chaz Williams' steal and fastbreak lay-up at the 9:14 mark put the Pride on top 55-48.
W&M returns to the road when it travels to VCU on Wednesday, Jan. 20, for a 7:30 p.m. tip-off at the Verizon Wireless Arena at the Stuart C. Siegel Center. Fans can catch the action over the Tribe Radio Network with Jay Colley, Bill McDonald and Charlie Woollum on the call. The broadcast will also be available over the Web at TribeAthletics.com. Live video for the contest can be found at VCUAthletics.com or by following the link on the men's basketball schedule page.
VCU 82, Georgia State 69
Box Score
ATLANTA, Ga. - The Virginia Commonwealth University men's basketball team took a page out of the New Orleans Saints playbook on Saturday evening in Atlanta.
While the Saints were running up the score in their NFL playoff game, the Rams were busy scoring on nearly every possession in a critical 82-69 Colonial Athletic Association road victory at Georgia State (8-11, 2-5 CAA).
VCU (12-4, 4-3 CAA) shot 60.8% from the field and 38.1% from beyond the arc, while locking down on defense in the second half, holding the Panthers to just 37.5% over the final 20 minutes of play.
"I'm really proud of the resolve our guys have been showing lately," Head Coach Shaka Smart said. "That's been our key word lately and it's exactly what we've had over these last three games. Defensively, our press wasn't getting it done tonight so we switched to the zone and it really worked out for us."
Leading the way was junior Joey Rodriguez (Oviedo, Fla.) with 21 points on 8-of-12 shooting, along with seven assists and three rebounds. Classmate Jamie Skeen (Charlotte, N.C.) (left) had his highest scoring game with the Rams, adding 16 points, while sophomore Bradford Burgess (Midlothian, Va.) knocked down big shot after big shot to the tune of 14 points.
"It's been great to see so many guys step in, not only night after night, but possession after possession," Smart said. "Joey was outstanding all night and Jamie and Bradford each made big plays throughout the game."
The first half was as back-and-forth as an Olympic table tennis match with six ties and five lead changes. Both teams shot over 50% from the field, with VCU shooting a blistering 69.0% (20-of-29).
With neither team leading by more than three over the first eight minutes, Trae Goldston knocked down a three from the corner to give the Panthers their largest lead of the half at four, 32-28.
A three-pointer by Burgess (right) ignited a 15-4 run and sent the Black & Gold into the intermission with a 46-38 advantage.
Coming out of the break, the Rams pushed the lead to as many as 12 on a Skeen putback with 16:45 to play.
That's when the Panthers made a 16-5 run behind several empathic dunks and seven points from Goldston to get within one at 59-58 with 9:49 remaining.
One point would be as close as Georgia State got the rest of the night as the Black & Gold locked in defensively to hold the Panthers to just four field goals the rest of the way, while pushing the advantage to as many as 13. Clutch free-throw shooting from senior T.J. Gwynn (Burlington, N.C.) and Rodriguez kept the lead in double-digits as the duo went 8-for-8 over the final minute.
Junior Larry Sanders (Fort Pierce, Fla.) was a force on the boards with 11 on the evening, along with eight points on 4-of-5 shooting.
Goldston led Georgia State with 19 points, while Trey Hampton and James Vincent tallied 13 and 10 respectively.
The Rams will return to the Verizon Wireless Arena at the Stuart C. Siegel Center for a pivotal CAA match-up against the first-place Tribe of William & Mary in a 7:30 p.m. contest on Wednesday evening.
Old Dominion 71, Drexel 48
Box Score
NORFOLK, Va. - Junior Ben Finney tallied a season-high 19 points to push the Old Dominion men's basketball team to its fifth straight victory as the Monarchs bested conference rival Drexel, 71-48, in front of a season-high 7,628 fans at the Ted Constant Convocation Center Saturday evening.
Old Dominion (14-5, 6-1), which has won 18 straight games in Norfolk, now owns the nation's seventh longest home winning streak. Drexel (9-10, 4-3) is the eighth team ODU has held under 50 points this season.
Finney and senior Gerald Lee both shot 6-of-8 from the floor with Finney registering 19 points and Lee posting 15. Lee has now scored in double-figures in eight consecutive games and in 16 total contests this season.
Junior Frank Hassell added seven points and grabbed 10 rebounds. Hassell has pulled down 10 or more boards in each of his last three contests. The Monarchs, who rank in the Top-20 nationally in rebounding advantage per game, out-boarded the Dragons 44-34.
ODU's effort was also bolstered by phenomenal free throw shooting. After going 14-of-34 from the charity stripe in its last home game against Hofstra, Old Dominion went 19-of-23 in the win over the Drexel.
Unlike its last few outings, Old Dominion fell behind early as Gerald Colds and Jamie Harris hit back-to-back buckets for Drexel to give the Dragons a 4-0 lead. The Monarchs stormed back immediately, going on an 18-4 run which was capped by a Marquel De Lancey lay-up at the 11:23 mark.
After Drexel cut ODU's lead to six (29-23) with under three minutes remaining in the first half, the Monarchs scored the final six points of the stanza to go into the intermission with its largest lead, 35-23.
Old Dominion continued its stellar play to open the second half, scoring the first eight points to go up 20 (43-23) after Keyon Carter scored off a Kent Bazemore feed.
The Monarchs would take their largest lead of the game, 63-35, at the 6:17 mark of the second half and Drexel would get no closer than 22 the rest of the way.
The win over Drexel was ODU's 11th double-digit victory and seventh by 20 or more this season.
Old Dominion heads back on the road Wednesday, Jan.20 to take on the Blue Hens of Delaware in Newark. The Monarch lead the all-time series 10-5 and picked up a 65-44 win over UD earlier this season. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. at the Bob Carpenter Center.