CAA Men's Basketball Recap - Jan. 4
Rob Washburn
William & Mary 83, Stony Brook 76
Box Score
Freshman Isaiah Mbeng scored a career-high 15 points to lead five William & Mary players in double figures as the Tribe (8-7, 2-0 CAA) defeated Stony Brook (4-11, 0-2 CAA), 83-76. W&M has opened CAA play with two road wins for just the third time in program history.
Stony Brook went ahead 19-10 midway through the first half, but W&M rallied to take a 42-37 halftime advantage. The Seawolves went back up by five with 11 minutes to play following a CJ Luster layup, but the Tribe responded with a 12-2 run to go up 70-65 on a Gabe Dorsey layup with 7:17 left. W&M never relinquished the lead after that. Caleb Dorsey added 14 points and Gabe Dorsey had 13 for a W&M team that shot better than 50% (51.9%) from the floor for the sixth time in seven games. Luster tallied a game-high 22 points for SBU and Jared Frey scored 18.
Hofstra 55, Northeastern 37
Box Score
Cruz Davis poured in 22 points and Jean Aranguren posted a double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds as Hofstra (9-6, 1-1 CAA) turned in a strong defensive performance to beat Northeastern, 55-37. The 37 points were the fewest allowed by the Pride since 1989.
The Huskies were up 19-18 at halftime, but Hofstra scored the first seven points of the second half. The Pride held a narrow 32-30 advantage with 8:54 remaining but pulled away with an 11-3 run. Davis reached the 20-point mark for the fifth time while the double-double was the third for Aranguren. Rashad King paced Northeastern with 16 points and 11 rebounds and Youri Fritz added seven points and 10 boards.
Charleston 77, Towson 69
Box Score
AJ Smith and Deywilk Tavarez combined for five three-pointers and scored 20 points apiece as Charleston (12-3, 2-0 CAA) never trailed in a 77-69 victory over Towson (6-9, 1-1 CAA). The Cougars have won eight of their last nine games.
Charleston built a 39-30 edge at the half and pushed the margin to 13 (43-30) on a Smith trey. Towson trimmed the deficit to six on several occasions, including a three by Tomiwa Sulaiman that made it 72-66 with 42 seconds to play. Charleston sealed the game at the free throw line, where it was 22-of-24 in the second half. Along with Tavarez and Smith, Ante Brzovic recorded his fifth double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds. Towson got a game-high 22 points from Tyler Tejada and Sulaiman added 15 points off the bench.
Drexel 68, North Carolina A&T 59
Box Score
Yame Butler scored a season-high 24 points to lead Drexel (9-6, 1-1 CAA) to a 68-59 road win over North Carolina A&T (4-12, 0-3 CAA). The Dragons’ defense held the Aggies to 19.2% field goal shooting in the second half.
Drexel held a narrow 34-33 lead at the half and A&T remained close for much of the second half, trailing just 52-47 with 8:31 left. However, the Dragons pulled away from there, extending the advantage to 66-53 on a Butler layup with 1:13 on the clock. Butler, who was 9-of-13 from the floor, added five rebounds, two blocks and two steals and the Dragons got nine points and eight boards from Kobe MaGee. Landon Glasper and Ryan Forrest tallied 13 points apiece for the Aggies and Nikolaos Chitikoudis posted a double-double with 12 points and 12 rebounds.
Delaware 84, Monmouth 64
Box Score
Delaware (8-7, 1-1 CAA) hit 8-of-10 threes in the first half to open a 24-point halftime advantage and went on to an 84-64 triumph over Monmouth (3-12, 1-1 CAA). Erik Timko nailed 5-of-8 treys and scored 17 points for the Blue Hens and Niels Lane also had 17.
Delaware opened the game by hitting five straight treys to go up 15-7 and never relinquished the lead. The Blue Hens, who shot 66.7% from the floor in the first 20 minutes, closed the half on a 21-7 run to take a commanding 51-27 lead into the break. Monmouth was unable to get closer than 19 points in the second half. Along with Timko and Lane, John Camden had 15 points, eight rebounds and seven assists for UD. For Monmouth, the CAA’s leading scorer, Abdi Bashir, Jr., tallied 20 points and Cornelius Robinson, Jr. had 10 points and five rebounds off the bench.
Elon 70, Hampton 62
Box Score
Nick Dorn scored 24 points and Sam Sherry recorded a double-double with 20 points and 12 rebounds as Elon (11-4, 2-0 CAA) held off Hampton (8-7, 1-2 CAA), 70-62. The Phoenix moved to 6-0 at home and are 2-0 in CAA play for the first time since 2017-18.
Hampton led by as much as seven in the first half and took a 32-30 advantage into the break. Holding a narrow 47-45 lead with 12:47 to go, Elon went on a 10-2 run over the next six minutes and maintained at least a six-point cushion the rest of the way. Dorn hit five treys and reached the 20-point mark for the fourth time while Sherry had his third double-double in the past four games. Hampton got a team-high 15 points from freshman Daniel Johnson and 14 points from Noah Farrakhan.
UNCW 77, Campbell 69
Box Score
Donovan Newby tallied a team-high 17 points and Khamari McGriff contributed 15 points and seven rebounds off the bench as UNCW (11-4, 1-1 CAA) battled past Campbell (6-9, 1-1 CAA), 77-69.
Campbell sprinted out to a quick 11-2 lead, but UNCW closed the first half on a 12-5 run to go up 39-31 at intermission. The Camels rallied to take a one-point lead with 12:33 to play, but the Seahawks responded with 11 unanswered points capped by a Harlan Obioha dunk to go ahead 56-46 with 9:47 left. A Jason Sinani trey capped a 9-0 run by the Camels to trim the deficit to one, but UNCW scored the next seven points and never gave up the lead. Obioha added 13 points for the Seahawks. Campbell got a game-high 22 points on 11-of-16 FG shooting from Colby Duggan and Sinani chipped in 13 points.