CAA Tourney: Hofstra Takes Down No. 1 JMU While Towson Tops Delaware

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

NEWARK, Del. – For the first time in the 36-year history of the Colonial Athletic Association women’s basketball tournament a quartet of once defectors from the America East Conference — three in 2001-02 and another in 2005-06  — have made it to the semifinals.

For the North to become totally relevant in the once-collective of southern universities it took an equally historic moment in Thursday’s quarterfinal round here in the Bob Carpenter Center on the campus of Delaware, another former defector, right from the start when ninth-seed Hofstra refused to give up its Cinderella pair of glass slippers, stunning No. 1 seed and preseason favorite James Madison 57-50 a day after ousting eighth seed and two-time defending champion Elon.

It’s the first time a No. 1 seed has ever fallen in the quarterfinals where the Dukes (25-5) had prevailed to compete 33 times in the semifinals with just four losses.

Granted, JMU, which has become the new Old Dominion following the departure several years of the long-time member Monarchs to Conference USA, was missing two key scorers, Neumann-Goretti grad Kamiah Smalls out of Philadelphia who hurt her right hand last week against Delaware and Lexie Barrier, who was injured 47 seconds into the game.

But while acknowledging the difficulty, Dukes coach Sean O’Regan said , “This team was still good enough to beat Hofstra (11-21).”

The day also ended with an upset when sixth-seeded Northeastern took down third-seeded UNCW 75-64. 

The winning Huskies’ recap will appear in a separate post with the recap of their next opponent.

In between, fourth-seeded Towson facing a true road game situation prevailed over fifth seed Delaware, the host, 59-49.

In the other game which is addressed in a separate post, after two narrow outcomes with a split decision during the season, No. 2 Drexel handled No. 7 William & Mary 71-60.

In Friday’s semifinals, Hofstra will open play at 1 p.m. playing Towson (18-12) before Drexel (23-7) takes the floor against Northeastern (20-10) at 4:30 p.m.

Those games will be on CAA.TV.

The winners move on to play in the championship Saturday at 1 p.m. leading to an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. 

NBC Sports-Philadelphia will televised the game.

JMU, not expected to get an at-large NCAA bid after its loss, now becomes the automatic qualifier for the 64-team WNIT field, but should Drexel, now the favorite, not earn its second CAA title and first since 2009, the Dragons will undoubtedly receive an at-large bid to the WNIT, which they once won.

Recapping two of the games here, we begin with the JMU-Hofstra encounter, which in the first half saw the Dukes shake off their latest chunk of adversity and move to a 26-16 halftime lead.

But the Pride were not exactly ready to head back to their campus in Hempstead on Long Island, N.Y.

   Through the first two periods JMU managed to shutout Hofstra’s Boogie Brozoski, who scored a record-battering 42 points in Wednesday’s opener against Elon.

However, the Pride weren’t ready to start packing for the trip back to their campus in Hempstead, N.Y. on Long Island.

Storming out of the locker room, Hofstra bolted on a run of 21-2 to go ahead 37-28 before JMU, which had won 13 straight, got the deficit back down to five at 37-32 in a quarter the Dukes were outscored 21-6.

In the run Brozoski finally got untracked with a three-pointer to get the Pride within three and Ana Hernandez Gil hot two of her three triplets.

JMU temporarily doused the upset hopes going up three quickly in the final period but Hofstra fought back and down the stretch Brozoski hit a bunch of foul shots to carry the Pride to another day.

“Basketball is a game of momentum and when it came back I thought we were going to ride it to the end,” JMU’s Devon Merritt said.

“We got a little more calculated and ran a few things because I knew we needed to score,” Hofstra coach Krista Kilburn-Steveskey, a former North Carolina State star, said. “I didn’t let us get down. It was just ‘OK, on to the next.’ 

“I thought we answered, and answered in a couple different ways . . . At the start of the fourth quarter, we had some terrible possessions. It was crazy. We had a lot of wasted possessions. But when it was time, they buckled down and they executed and hit the shot.”

She is in her 13th season guiding the Pride after being an assistant at James Madison.

JaKayla Brown had a career-high 17 points shooting 7-for-12 for the winners. 

Brozoski got to double figures, scoring 14 points, predominantly at the line where she finally missed one that made her 11-for-12, all in the fourth quarter. 

She had made 49 straight before the miss with four seconds left and then she scored one more. Jaylen Hines grabbed 14 rebounds.

“It feels great,” Brown said of the win. “Just knowing that we came in as underdogs and everyone counted us out before we even stepped on the floor. We just proved to them that we can play at the right time.”

JMU’s Merritt scored 15 points, Jackie Benitez scored 12, Aneah Young scored 11, and Kayla Cooper-Williams grabbed 12 rebounds.

Hofstra had lost eight straight to the folks from Harrisonburg, Va.

“The defense made a difference and we made big shots when we needed,” Kilburn-Stevesky said. “I wanted these kids to have every experience I did. You remember every sight, and sound and smell.”

On the other side, O’Reagan said, “Tough outcome, I thought we fought as hard as we could, the ball just didn’t go down for us today. I’m disappointed in the outcome but I’m not disappointed at all at how we fought.”

Smalls played a couple of minutes but then sat down, O’Regan saying she was only cleared for two minutes.

As for the third period, he said, “I thought they played hard in stretches. It was the first team all year that outrebounded us since the Wake Forest game.

“They speeded it up with their press and forced us to play a little faster tempo, which was a smart coaching move by her. We had one point guard and my latest backup point guard just got hurt.

“They were the aggressor for a little bit. Not for the whole game, but it gave them some momentum. 

“She made some … what ever adjustments she made at the half, to give up single digits the first two quarters and then give up 20 in each of the next is a big difference for us.

“With a little more practice time, this team today could win a championship,” he said. “We just didn’t have any time to prep, especially with Lexie’s absence.”

JMU was also missing freshman guard Madison Green, who was not cleared.

“It felt like in the third quarter we just couldn’t get a ball to go down. As the game goes on, you begin to press and wonder, `What can I do to get it to drop.’”

O’Reagan said his team will play in the WNIT, which is now likely the best destiny left for the Dukes and he thought there is some value out of the competition.

“Give us a little more time to prep, we got talent,” he said of the way some of his players stepped up in the face of adversity. “We’re going to play. We’re not one of those teams. I can’t speak for everybody’s situation but I think it’s a good opportunity for people to step up.

“(Almost) everybody’s returning so now you can get — Green doesn’t have a serious injury. Smalls should be back by then. So this is going to sting for a while but we’ll get back at it, we’ll practice, but this is a tough one.”

Towson Moves On Ousting Delaware

The home team Blue Hens never led though the game was tied four times but the Tigers, who had a 10-point lead in the second quarter and nine in the third had to fight off a Delaware (16-15) rally to a one-point deficit near the end of the third before running off an 9-0 sport at the end of the period.

The Hens fought back again in the final period, moving to within a basket with 1:11 left in the game but the Tigers’ Q Murray answered launching an 8-0 run to the end of the game.

Kionna Jeter was deadly for Towson, scoring 30 points and grabbing 10 rebounds while Murray scored 13.

Samone DeFreese scored 13 for Delaware, which faced adversity all season beginning with losing player of the year Nicole Enabosi to a knee injury prior to the start of play last fall but regrouped to ultimately winning 10 of its last 13 all on the conference schedule.

Alison Lewis scored 10.

Facing the challenge of Towson’s game not being on neutral hardwood, second-year coach Dianne Richardson, who took the conference coaching honors from her peers, said, “We played really hard, Delaware was a tough, tough team, and we maintained our composure.

“This conference, anybody can win, which we saw earlier today. We have to be prepared and we came in here prepared for anybody we see.”

As for knowing JMU would not be the Tigers’ next opponent if they advanced, Richardson said of keeping her team’s eye on the prize, “It was really tough for JMU. You hate to see kids go down hurt.

“We have to maintain and stay on the road that we made for ourselves and not be distracted by those things.”

Towson, which won at Saint Joseph’s in the non-conference schedule, upset Drexel 55-54 to start CAA play in January, though the Dragons finished the regular season winning 77-44 in Maryland.

Though Hofstra is riding a surge, the Pride lost to the Tigers, 92-68 and 68-56.

“I think they’re being more offensively and more players are stepping up offensively, so we have to make sure not only do we stop Boogie, but we stop everybody else so not to let someone else get off on us, too.”

As for Delaware, it is likely time to go back to the drawing boards and prepare for next season in which barring further setbacks the Hens will be healed and having at least gotten more players experience as replacements than might otherwise have happened.

“Not the outcome we wanted today, but as I told the team, this moment today isn’t going to negate the things we did this season,” said second-year coach Natasha Adair.

“This is a group that is resilient, this is a group that has fought through a whole bunch of adversity, and this is also a group that is hurting, because we prepared, and wanted this moment.

“My hat goes off to Towson. Coach Richardson is a personal friend of mine and what she has done in year two is amazing and a tribute to her. 

“But I’ll go to war with my girls any day. Because in these two years we have grown, and we have experienced things, but today we just didn’t put it together for 40.”