Charleston Outlasts Monmouth, 79-78, in Overtime Thriller
Dylan Smith
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HIGHLIGHTS | PRESS CONFERENCE – CHARLESTON | PRESS CONFERENCE – MONMOUTH
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Ante Brzovic scored 22 points, including a game-tying layup with 18 seconds left in regulation, and Derrin Boyd tallied four of his 16 points in overtime to lift third-seeded Charleston past No. 6 Monmouth, 79-78, in the final quarterfinal game of the Jersey Mike’s CAA Men’s Basketball Championship on Sunday night at CareFirst Arena.
Charleston, the two-time defending CAA champion, advances to play No. 2 UNCW in the semifinals at 8:30 p.m. on Monday. Monmouth ended its season with a 13-20 record.
In addition to Brzovic and Boyd, the Cougars got 17 points off the bench from AJ Smith and 10 from CJ Fulton.
Monmouth was led by guard Abdi Bashir, Jr., who nailed six treys and tallied a game-high 24 points, en route to setting the CAA record for most 3-pointers in a season with 127. Backcourt mate Jack Collins added 15 points.
There were seven lead changes and six ties during a tightly contested first half. An early bucket by Brzovic put Charleston up 7-2, but neither team led by more than four for the rest of the period. Collins, who scored a team-high nine points on 3-of-5 three-point shooting in the first 20 minutes, drained back-to-back treys that pulled the Hawks within 32-31 with 1:33 on the clock. The Cougars were paced by Smith’s 12 first-half points, which ended with a layup at the 1:14 mark that helped Charleston take a 34-33 advantage into the break.
The Cougars ran off the first eight points of the second half and went up 44-35 on a Brzovic basket with 17:27 remaining. Monmouth answered with a 16-4 surge that included 10 points from Bashir followed by a deep three from Collins that put the Hawks on top 51-48 with 12:38 to go.
The margin remained three points or less the rest of the way. Consecutive layups from Cornelius Robinson, Jr. put the Hawks ahead 69-67, but a Boyd trey from the left side allowed Charleston to go ahead by one with 1:05 left. Bashir responded with a three of his own to make it 72-70 with 42 seconds on the clock, but Brzovic’s layup forced overtime.
In the extra session, the Cougars went ahead 77-74 on a Fulton layup with 1:57 left, but a Madison Durr layup trimmed the deficit to one. Boyd sank a pair of free throws with 13.5 seconds on the clock to extend the lead to three, and Monmouth was only able to add a layup as time expired.