CAA Men’s Basketball Recap – Jan. 15
Dylan Smith
Towson 61, Charleston 52
Box Score
Towson (10-9, 2-4 CAA) battled to a 61-52 victory over Charleston (11-7, 4-1 CAA) on CBS Sports Network, snapping the Cougars’ seven-game winning streak. Tyler Coleman led the charge with 13 points and six boards for the Tigers. Tyler Tejada chipped in 11 points of his own en route to his team’s first win over the Cougars at home since 2022.
Towson flew out to an early 11-3 edge as Coleman scored five points in the opening four minutes. After the Tigers saw their lead grow to double digits, Charleston’s Connor Hickman kept his team within reach with a pair of triples and a finish at the rim to make it a seven-point deficit, 20-13, with 6:39 to play. Towson poured it on to end the frame after Womack hit a 3-pointer as time expired to cap off a 14-4 run and give the home team a 34-17 cushion.
Womack opened the second half the same way he closed the first, sinking a triple 17 seconds into the frame to give Towson its largest lead of the game, 37-17. Charleston caught fire and stormed to within four, 46-42, on a 23-7 run capped off by a Chol Machot slam with 7:33 to play in regulation. The two teams traded five-point spurts before Towson’s lead grew to eight, 55-47, following a pair of makes at the charity stripe by Caleb Embeya. The Tigers held Charleston to just two made field goals over the final five minutes of action to secure the nine-point win. Hickman finished with a game-high 20 points, seeing four of his eight makes fall from distance. Machot registered a 10-point, 13-rebound double-double. Jlynn Counter added 10 points, seven boards and six assists.
Stony Brook 76, Hofstra 71
Box Score
Stony Brook (10-9, 2-4 CAA) took down Hofstra (13-5, 4-1 CAA), 76-71, snapping the Pride’s eight-game winning streak. Richard Goods produced a 20-point performance in the win, with four of his seven makes coming from behind the arc. The Seawolves’ big man also notched eight boards, six assists and two blocks. Andrej Shoshkikj matched Goods in scoring with 20 points of his own, recording three made triples, four rebounds and three helpers. Erik Pratt nearly eclipsed the 20-point threshold with an 18-point, four-assist showing on Thursday.
A defensive battle ensued to open the crosstown matchup until Stony Brook found themselves ahead, 9-3, following consecutive finishes at the rim from Richard Goods and Rob Brown III with 14:10 remaining. Hofstra battled back behind Preston Edmead as the freshman finished a 9-3 run with a triple from the wing to take a 19-18 edge with 7:34 to play in the opening stanza. The Seawolves carried a 32-25 lead into the intermission after closing the half on a 14-6 run, with Erik Pratt beating the halftime buzzer with a midrange jumper.
Shoshkikj made it an 11-point edge, 39-28, out of the break with the first seven Seawolves points. It was the long-range game that continued to keep Hofstra at bay for the opening 14 minutes, which had cut its deficit to as few as six. Goods did it almost single-handedly as he hit a trio of trifectas to reclaim a double-digit advantage, 62-50, with six minutes to play. Cruz Davis and AJ Wills connected from distance to slash the deficit in half, but Stony Brook responded with a five-point spurt to go back ahead by 11 with under four minutes left in regulation. The Seawolves staved off a late push by the Pride to hold on for the five-point victory. Edmead posted 22 points and eight boards, while Davis chipped in 16 points and seven assists.
Northeastern 85, Elon 78
Box Score
Northeastern (6-11, 2-4 CAA) weathered the storm to secure an 85-78 home win over Elon (11-7, 3-2 CAA). William Kermoury notched a career-high 31 points with seven of his 11 makes coming from distance. The sharpshooter also added five assists and four steals to his final line. Xavier Abreu also reached double figures in scoring, unleashing 18 of his 22 points in the second half alone. The Huskies notched 29 points off turnovers and 19 second-chance points in Thursday’s victory.
The Huskies came out firing on all cylinders as Luca Soroa Schaller knocked down his first three attempts inside the arc and Kermoury drained his first three shots from distance en route to a 17-6 lead at the under-16 media timeout. The early success continued out of the timeout as Northeastern closed out a 20-0 run on a pair of layups from both Kermoury and Abreu for a 25-6 cushion with 11:40 left in the opening frame. Elon’s tandem of Bryson Cokley and Chandler Cuthrell led the comeback charge with a 15-2 run of their own to pull within six, 27-21, with 8:31 remaining. Cokley eventually tied the game at 38 with 2:24 on the clock after his trifecta marked the third straight make from distance by the Phoenix. Northeastern took a 41-39 lead into the break.
The shootout continued in the second half as Kermoury expanded the Huskies’ lead to as many as five behind another pair of 3-pointers. The Phoenix tied the game twice before Cuthrell finished at the rim and Cokley’s fifth trey of the game sparked a 12-2 run that gave the visitors a seven-point edge, 72-65, with 8:16 remaining in regulation. Abreu willed the Huskies back into the contest with eight unanswered points, part of a personal 12-4 run that put Northeastern back in front for good, 77-76, with 2:37 left. The Huskies closed the game on a 20-6 run en route to their seven-point win. Elon’s Cokley finished with 26 points, seven assists and six rebounds in the setback. Cuthrell chipped in 19 points and five rebounds, while Randall Pettus II hit four treys for 12 points to round out those in double figures.
William & Mary 97, N.C. A&T 89
Box Score
With two-thirds of its shots going down in the final 20 minutes of action, William & Mary (12-6, 3-3) picked up a 97-89 victory at North Carolina A&T (7-9, 0-5 CAA). The Tribe shot 66.7% from the floor (18-27 FG) in the second half, including a 16-of-22 showing inside the arc. Reese Miller and Tunde Vahlberg Fasasi produced 19-point efforts on Thursday, with the latter notching six boards, five assists and four steals. Kilian Brockhoff posted 15 points, six rebounds and two blocks. Jhei-r Jones rounded out those in double figures with 13 points.
The Tribe and the Aggies kept pace with each other to open the contest, neither seeing an advantage grow larger than one possession through the opening four minutes. Jones rattled off a personal 8-0 run before Miller’s 3-pointer gave the Tribe an eight-point edge, 19-11, with 13:52 to go. W&M’s advantage grew to double digits as Ryan Jackson Jr. closed out a 6-0 spurt at the rim for a 33-21 advantage with 6:14 left. The Aggies battled back to make it a two-point game, 42-40, at the break as Lewis Walker and Trent Middleton Jr. surged over the final 3:30 to help N.C. A&T finish the half on a 14-6 run.
An early 13-5 stretch for the Tribe found them up by double figures, 55-45, after Jackson finished at the rim four minutes into the frame. Approaching the midway point of the half, N.C. A&T’s Middleton sank a triple before Zamoku Weluche-Ume went coast-to-coast for the layup to make it a four-point game, 65-61, once again. It was as close as the Aggies would get as William & Mary’s Brockhoff, Vahlberg Fasasi and Miller combined for 36 points in the second half alone to hold on for the eight-point victory. The Aggies’ Walker finished with a game-high 33 points, going 11-for-14 from the floor with three 3-pointers and an 8-for-10 showing at the line. The Aggies’ rookie also logged the most points by a CAA freshman in a conference game since James Madison’s Matt Lewis posted 33 points against Charleston on Feb. 15, 2018. Middleton chipped in a 20-point effort, while Weluche-Ume posted a 15-point, 10-rebound double-double.
Drexel 73, Monmouth 51
Box Score
For the sixth time this season, Drexel (9-10, 3-3 CAA) held the opposition to under 60 points in its 73-51 road victory over Monmouth (8-10, 2-3 CAA). Shane Blakeney led the charge with 18 points, knocking down five trifectas to go with seven rebounds and a pair of steals. Eli Beard also reached double figures with 15 points, all coming from behind the arc and matching Blakeney with five 3-pointers. Three players – Victor Panov, Kevon Vanderhorst and Josh Reed – produced nine-point showings in the team’s third straight win.
The Dragons’ Vanderhorst and Beard each hit a triple to open the contest before Monmouth’s Jack Collins pulled the Hawks back to within two, 9-7, with a trey of his own at 16:07. The Hawks stayed within striking distance thanks to Cornelius Robinson Jr., watching the junior forward score 11 of the team’s next 12 points to knot the game at 19 with 8:07 to play in the first half. Shane Blakeney orchestrated a crucial Dragons surge, hitting three treys and scoring 11 of the team’s 19 unanswered points for a 38-19 lead at the break.
Drexel continued to increase its lead after missing its first three shots of the second half, going on to sink six of its next seven attempts to take a 54-25 lead with 12:44 to play in the contest. The Dragons shot 50% from distance (7-14 FG) in the second half alone. Monmouth closed out the game having made six of its final eight shots. Robinson finished with 15 points and three rebounds for the Hawks. Dok Muordar added a 10-point showing with four boards and two blocks.