Effort and Heart Are Not Enough for Towson (Recap of Towson vs. Delaware CAA First Round Game)

In the second game of the afternoon session of the CAA Tournament,  Delaware took on Towson.  The game seemed like a foregone conclusion as the Tigers had one win all season.  But they had played the Blue Hens close in both of their games.

When Defiantly Dutch and I came back from the UNCW - James Madison post game conference, Delaware was only up 7-5.  Six minutes later it was 18-9.  Four minutes later it was 30-13. As expected, the Blue Hens were pulling away from the Tigers.

In the scariest moment of the day, during the first half, there was a battle for a rebound and a Towson player fell with all his weight on Delaware's Hakim McCullar, who was slammed to the floor with a loud sickening noise.  The Richmond Coliseum crowd went completely silent for several minutes as McCullar lied motionless for a few minutes. Then he sat up for a few minutes, then the Delaware staff helped him walk off the court.  He ended up having concussion like symptoms, but thankfully was okay otherwise.

Towson was able to cut the deficit to eleven at the half.  That's because they played with a lot of effort.  They just couldnt put the ball in the basket in the first half as they shot seven of thirty three from the field.

No one exemplified the above statement than Tigers senior forward Robert Nwankwo.  For forty minutes, he got offensive rebound after offensive rebound.  But either he missed the followup shot or he was fouled. Nwankwo was eight of twenty two from the field on the day. However, he was eleven of fifteen from the line.

Towson continued to chip away in the second half as they started finally hitting their shots.  With about seven and a half minutes remaining, the unthinkable occurred.  The Tigers' Deon Jones hit a jumper and Towson had come all the way back to tie the score at fifty three.  Delaware's Devon Saddler responded by burying a three pointer.  The Tigers had a chance to tie a few minutes later. But Nwanko missed a jumper and that was their last opportunity to tie the game.

Delaware was too strong from the foul line as they hit twenty seven of thirty eight free throw attempts.  In the end, Delaware had a 72-65 win.  Saddler led all scorers with 28 points and was four of nine from beyond the arc.  Jarvis Threatt, who reminds me so much of Loren Stokes, who used to play for Hofstra, added fifteen points, nine of which came from the line.  Josh Brinkley added fourteen points.

The Tigers dominated the glass, outrebounding the Blue Hens 51-33.  Towson had twenty four offensive rebounds, twelve came from Nwankwo.   Nwankwo's final stat line was twenty seven points and twenty rebounds.   It was the first twenty twenty stat line in the history of the CAA Tournament and the twenty rebounds tied the CAA Tournament record which is also held by Larry Sanders in the 2009 CAA Championship game.

For the second year in a row, the Tigers played a very close #5-#12 game, but again came up short.  But as Coach Monte Ross said about Towson, "You wouldn't know their record by the way they play."  Nwanko, a senior, talked about how the young players needed to have listened to Coach Ross sooner in the season about the effort necessary to win.  If you were at the press conference, one could see that he really cared about his team's play and the development of the younger players.
 
You wished Nwankwo could play another season so that he could be a part of the development of Towson. However, he will have to watch them from afar next season, even if it seems like his heart will always be with them.

Love and Basketball (Recap of Delaware vs. Hofstra)

When you think of Valentine's Day, you don't think about spending it at a basketball game.  But when your six year old son would be despondent if he couldn't go to a Hofstra game, you adjust your plans accordingly.  Thus for the first time since the 2001-02 season, my wife, Michelle went to a Hofstra game along with my younger son, Jonathan, my older son, Matthew and me.  To mark the occasion, my wife got me a box of candy shaped in a basketball heart.

Unfortunately for Hofstra, not too many other couples and their families attended last night's game.  When we got there a few minutes before game time, the Lions' Den student section was empty.  Heck, most of the Mack Center was empty.  The announced attendance was 1,785.  Perhaps that included paid season ticket holders who had made other Valentine's Day dinner plans, but I would subtract anywhere from 785 to 1,000 from that number.  The crowd was so small you could hear Hofstra Coach Mo Cassara clear as day.

The lack of energy in the Mack Center appeared to affect the home team.  The Pride struggled to score from the onset while Delaware was scoring easy baskets on the inside.  The Blue Hens raced out to a 17-4 lead in the first seven minutes of the game and it looked like they would finally break their ten game losing streak at the Mack Center.

Delaware last won a game vs. Hofstra in the Mack Center during conference play in the 2000-01 season, the final season for both teams in the America East.  The then Flying Dutchmen would later defeat the Blue Hens in the America East championship at the Mack to start the ten game home winning streak.  It was also the last time Hofstra made the NCAA Tournament.

The Pride responded by outscoring the Blue Hens 24-11 over the next nearly eight minutes on a layup by Mike Moore.  Hofstra had a chance to take the lead, but Nathaniel Lester missed an open jumper. Delaware would then score the next seven points to go up 35-28.  It seemed like Hofstra' season in a nutshell, rally, tie, but they just couldn't get over the hump. The Pride did close the gap to four, 36-32 at the half.

There were so few people in attendance that the Hofstra mascots, Kate and Willy were going into the crowd and saying hi to whatever kids were there.  In fact, Kate had come by before the game and made friends with Jonathan, who found the female lion mascot quite amusing.  Kate came right back to see Jonathan before the second half and played peek a boo with him.  In return, Jonathan showed Kate his monster trucks.

The second half started just like the first half did as Delaware extended their lead to nine, 43-34.  The Blue Hens maintained their lead 49-40 with eleven minutes left.  As has been the case, the Pride was struggling to score.  Hofstra hit on only three of their first thirteen shots in the second half..

But Matt Grogan, a walk on who is starting to see more time because he can hit an open three pointer, buried a three to start a Pride 10-0 run over the next three minutes.  Mike Moore's rainbow three pointer gave Hofstra their first lead of the game 50-49 with eight minutes left.  The fans that were there stood and applauded as the Blue Hens called timeout.  As DefiantlyDutch noted on a tweet, it was the Pride's first lead in a game since six minutes left in the George Mason game last Wednesday.  Last Saturday, Drexel led from start to finish in their win over Hofstra.

However, the lead was short lived.  Jamelle Hagins grabbed one his eighteen rebounds off a Khalid Lewis miss and dunked it home.  It would be the beginning of a stunning 22-4 Delaware run over the next seven minutes of the game.  During that time, Hofstra would miss ten straight shots from the field and the fifth leading free throw shooter in the CAA, Moore, would miss three free throws during that span.

Lester hit an anti-climatic three point play to score the final points of the game, but most of the fans had picked up and left earlier, perhaps for late dinner plans. The Blue Hens had a convincing 71-57 win to end the ten game losing streak at the Mack Center.

Delaware's Jarvis Threatt led all scorers with twenty points, thirteen of which came from the free throw line.  Hagins had a double double with fourteen points, eighteen rebounds and added four blocks. Lewis and Kyle Anderson each added twelve points.  For Hofstra,  Moore had sixteen points and Lester added eleven.  The problem was the two combined to shoot an ugly seven of twenty nine from the field.  Steve Mejia added ten points for the Pride.

As Chelle and I said our goodbyes to Defiantlydutch and his much better half Michelle, both of whom sat with us in the second half, we made our way out of the Mack Center  A year ago, I was hanging out by the court celebrating Charles Jenkins' two buzzer beaters on my birthday in a win over William and Mary.  Now I was standing in a empty lot saying goodbye to my friend Tieff after Hofstra's fourteenth loss of the season.  They now have as many losses in conference this season as they had wins in conference last season.

Still, it was good to have the ones I loved with me for the game.  It's not how you spend your Valentine's Day that matters.  It's who you spend it with that matters.