CAA MEN'S BASKETBALL RECAP - FEB. 3
Georgia State 61, George Mason 57
Box Score
ATLANTA - Jihad Ali scored a career-high 22 points, including the go-ahead three-pointer with 42 seconds left, as Georgia State knocked off George Mason, 61-57, Wednesday at the GSU Sports Arena.
Knocking off the Colonial Athletic Association's first-place team, the Panthers (10-14, 4-8 CAA) snapped a three-game skid while halting Mason's (15-8, 10-2 CAA) seven-game winning streak.
With GSU trailing 57-53 with under three minutes to play, Joe Dukes hit a pair of free throws to pull the Panthers within two with 2:37 left.
Ali rebounded a miss by Mason's Cam Long, but Dukes missed the front end of a one-and-one.
GSU forced another miss, and this time Ousman Krubally grabbed the defensive rebound. After a timeout, Dukes fed Ali in the corner for the trey to put the Panthers ahead, 58-57. After another stop by the Panthers, Krubally was fouled and sank both free throws for a 60-57 advantage with 20 seconds left.
Georgia State survived two more missed shots by the Patriots, and Dukes rebounded and hit a free throw with one second left for the final margin.
"I'm just thankful for this team. We lost three close ones on the road, but they kept fighting," said GSU head coach Rod Barnes.
"Jihad Ali hit a big shot for us, and at the end our defense got a couple of stops to close out the win. Down the stretch, I kept telling them, they have to believe they're going to win the game. And they did."
Ali, a sophomore from Atlanta's M.L. King High, came off the bench to hit 9-of-13 shots, including two three-pointers, to easily eclipse his previous high of 12 points. He also grabbed six rebounds.
"Jihad is a very good shooter, and I could tell this has been coming," said Barnes. "We sat down this week and had a little heart-to-heart, and I told him how good I thought he could be. He can put the ball in the hole, and he has a great feel for the game. He just had to have the confidence in himself."
Dukes tied his career best with 10 assists, along with 10 points, five rebounds and three steals for the senior from Cuthbert, Ga. Freshman center James Vincent contributed six points and a game-high seven rebounds.
The Panthers trailed 27-22 at the intermission after shooting just 29.6 percent in the first half. GSU improved to 52 percent from the field in a second half that featured 11 lead changes.
Ali's first trey of the game gave the Panthers a 53-51 lead with 4:28 to play, but Mason answered with three straight layups to move ahead
57-53 with 3:23 left.
Ryan Pearson led Mason with 13 points and eight rebounds, and Luke Hancock added 10 points. Leading scorer Cam Long managed just 1-for-9 shooting for two points.
"We started changing our defense down the stretch, and that helped us," said Barnes. " We went zone because their penetration was hurting us."
Georgia State remains at home to host William and Mary Saturday at 6 p.m. in the annual Homecoming game.
Old Dominion 61, William & Mary 42
Box Score
NORFOLK, Va. - Old Dominion held its 10th opponent under 50 points and dominated on the boards with a 48-25 edge in a wire-to-wire 61-42 victory over Colonial Athletic Association rival William & Mary Wednesday evening in front of over 8,000 fans at the Ted Constant Convocation Center.
Old Dominion (18-6, 10-2 CAA), which has won nine of its last 10 games, has now won 20 consecutive home games. The home winning streak is the sixth longest in the nation.
The Monarchs are currently in a three-way tie for first-place in the league with Northeastern and George Mason.
Junior Frank Hassell led all Monarchs with a game-high 15 points to go along with nine rebounds. Classmate Ben Finney tied his career-high with 11 rebounds.
Old Dominion, which entered the contest as the nations 14th best team in rebounding margin (+8.2), pulled down 23 offensive rebounds to go along with 25 on the defensive end. The Tribe totaled only 25 total rebounds.
William & Mary (15-7, 7-5) shot 33.3 percent from the field and had no scorers in double-figures. Seven of ODU's last eight opponents have shot 36-percent or lower from the field.
The Monarchs got off to a quick start, getting four different buckets from four different players to go up 8-0. After a timeout the Tribe immediately responded, going on a 7-0 run which was capped by a David Schneider three.
ODU never allowed William & Mary to get the lead though, going on a 13-3 run to take a 21-10 lead at the 6:44 mark of the opening half. The Monarchs held a seven-point edge (29-22) at halftime.
A three-point field goal from Quinn McDowell to start the second half cut ODU's advantage to four, but the Tribe would get no closer. The Monarchs went on a 9-2 spurt and a Keyon Carter jumper gave ODU a 38-27 lead at the 14:49 mark.
With an 11-point advantage later in the half, the Monarchs would seal the game with a 14-2 run. ODU took its largest lead of the night as Hassell capped the spurt with a traditional three-point play which left the Monarchs up 61-38 with just over two minutes remaining. Six different players scored during the run, including Hassell, who had five of the points.
Old Dominion heads back on the road on Saturday, Feb. 6 to take on Virginia Commonwealth. Tip-time is set for 4 p.m. from the Siegel Center. The game will be televised live on Comcast SportsNet.
Hofstra 68, James Madison 48
Box Score
Harrisonburg, VA (Feb. 3) - Junior guard Charles Jenkins (Queens, NY) had 20 points on 7-11 shooting as the Hofstra Men's Basketball team rolled to a 68-48 win over James Madison on Wednesday evening at the JMU Convocation Center.
With the win, the Pride improves to 12-12 on the year and 5-7 in the Colonial Athletic Association, while winning its third straight game. The Pride also won its 11th in a row in the series with James Madison, improving to 11-4 in the all-time series. The Dukes fall to 10-13 overall, and 3-9 in the CAA with the loss.
Jenkins scored 13 of his points in the first half as the Pride led for most of the opening stanza. Hofstra had a lead as high as eight points at 29-21 with 3:18 left, but settled for a 30-25 lead at the break.
With the score 32-29 one minute into the second half, the Pride went on an 11-0 run to pull away. Jenkins started the rally when he pulled up for a three-pointer on the fast break, and capped it off with another jumper to make the score 43-29 with 14:20 to go. Hofstra was able to cruise from there, as James Madison was unable to get the deficit back down to single digits.
Senior forward Miklos Szabo (Szeghalom, Hungary) had 12 points and eight rebounds for the Pride, while junior forward Greg Washington (Centereach, NY) had nine points and 12 rebounds. Washington also had one blocked shot, giving him 174 in his career, four shy of the Hofstra school record held by David Taylor (1979-83).
Denzel Bowles and Julius Wells each had 15 points for James Madison in a losing cause. Bowles, who came in averaging 20 points and 10 rebounds a game, was held to only two boards, while Wells shot only 4-15 on the day. Hofstra shot 47.4 percent from the floor and held a 41-30 rebounding advantage, while the Dukes shot only 34.0 percent overall and 12.5 percent (2-16) from three-point territory.
Hofstra will next be in action when it returns home to face Northeastern on Saturday afternoon at the Mack Sports Complex by a 4 p.m. contest. For ticket information, log on to www.GoHofstra.com or call 516-HOF-TIXX.
VCU 73, UNC Wilmington 60
Box Score
WILMINGTON, N.C. - Consider this: Every Virginia Commonwealth University men's basketball head coach that has won their first trip to Trask Coliseum has made a trip to the NCAA Tournament that same year.
First, it was Sonny Smith in 1996, then Anthony Grant in 2007, is Shaka Smart next?
The first part of that equation came on Wednesday night as junior Ed Nixon (St. Petersburg, Fla.) led a tremendous effort from the bench to lead the Black & Gold (16-5, 8-4 CAA) to a critical 73-60 road victory over the Seahawks of UNC Wilmington (7-16, 3-9 CAA).
Nixon poured in a career-high 19 points, 14 of which came in the second half, to lead a 42-point effort from the reserves. Classmate Joey Rodriguez (Oviedo, Fla.) was stellar once again, tallying 18 points and a season-high five rebounds.
"I'm proud of the resilience our guys showed tonight," Smart said. "There was definitely a stretch where we weren't playing our game, particularly in the first half, but we stuck with it and our shots finally started to fall."
The first 15 minutes was a little scary for the Black & Gold faithful as the Rams started just 4-of-18 from the field, before embarking on a 16-5 run, ignited by nine points from the free-throw line thanks to aggressiveness near the basket.
"It's something we definitely work on a lot," Smart said of the free-throwing shooting. "Every team does, but our guys have really done a great job of staying focused when they go to the free-throw line, especially in the last eight-10 games."
After taking a nine-point lead into the break, the Seahawks got within four early in the second stanza thanks to five points from Chad Tomko.
That was the closest UNC Wilmington would come as Nixon scored nine of VCU's next 16 points to spark an 18-9 run that would make the lead a double-digit one for good.
"I really can't say enough about Ed," Smart said. "He's been outstanding for us all year. Not only in the games, but in practice as well, he always does the right thing. As a coaching staff, we really tried to instill a lot of confidence in him and when he plays with confidence he's obviously tough to contain."
Nine different players scored for the Black & Gold, who have now won seven of its past eight contests. Freshman Troy Daniels (Roanoke, Va.) and senior Kirill Pishchalnikov (Maykop, Russia) tallied seven and six points respectively to join Nixon in the high-scoring attack off the bench.
"Our bench was tremendous tonight," Smart said. "Really every guy we put in the game off the bench was focused and did what we needed them to do. When our starters aren't having a great night, it's nice to have the luxury of having high quality players to sub in."
Chad Tomko was the only Seahawk in double-figures with 11 points, while John Fields added nine points and 11 rebounds in the loss.
Junior Larry Sanders (Fort Pierce, Fla.) pulled down double-digit rebounds for the fifth straight game with 10 rebounds, but was held scoreless for the first time since a season-opening win over Citadel last season (Nov. 16, 2008).
The Rams will now look forward to a big-time CAA showdown with archrival Old Dominion on Saturday at 4 p.m. Al Koken and Mark Tillman will bring you all the action on Comcast SportsNet.