Hofstra's hopes for NCAA Tournament bid end with loss in CAA semifinal
Tyler Thomas #23 of the Hofstra Pride dribbles by Trazarien White #13 of the North Carolina-Wilmington Seahawks in the first half during the CAA Men's Basketball Championship - semifinal game at the Entertainment & Sports Arena on March 6, 2023 in Washington, DC. Credit: Getty Images/Mitchell Layton
WASHINGTON — A dream died on Monday night in the nation’s capital.
Hofstra hadn’t lost in nearly two months, coming on late to win the Colonial Athletic Association’s regular-season championship. However, its hopes of winning the conference tournament and the accompanying NCAA Tournament bid got crushed.
The Pride couldn’t make a shot in crunch time and lost to UNC Wilmington in overtime, 79-73, in a CAA semifinal at the D.C. Entertainment and Sports Arena.
Hofstra didn’t make a single field goal in the final 4:48 of regulation and all five minutes of overtime, going 0-for-11 with four turnovers. As a result, the Pride (24-9) had their winning streak snapped at 12 games and will move on to the NIT instead of The Big Dance.
Hofstra coach Speedy Claxton said he couldn’t remember any point in the season when his No. 1-seeded team, whose 48.3% shooting ranked 20th in the nation, was so off the mark for such a long stretch.
“To win 12 games in a row and be on point, you’re bound to have an ‘off’ night, an ‘off’ stretch, and that’s what happened tonight,” he said. “We just got cold at the wrong time . . . We got the same looks that we always get. We just didn’t make them tonight.”
After UNCW’s Nick Farrar drove into the lane and scored with 29 seconds left in overtime for a 76-73 lead, Hofstra had a great chance to tie it on the ensuing possession. Jaquan Carlos’ three-pointer from the left corner rattled back and forth in the basket but came out, and the Pride had to foul. UNCW made four free throws around a missed three-pointer by Aaron Estrada to seal it.
“His shot went in and literally came back out,” the Seahawks’ Trazarien White said.
Fourth-seeded UNCW (24-9) will meet second-seeded Charleston — a 77-72 winner over third-seeded Towson — in Tuesday’s 7 p.m. championship game. It will be seeking its seventh CAA championship.
Hofstra automatically qualified for the NIT because it was the regular-season conference champion.
“It’s just heartbreaking,” Estrada said. “I know how much work this team put in each and every day and I feel like we deserved to play in the [NCAA] Tournament because we put the work in and we showed everybody throughout the course of the season. But tonight UNC Wilmington was just the better team.”
Estrada had 25 points and six assists, Carlos added 19 points and eight rebounds and Tyler Thomas had 14 points for the Pride, who shot only 39.7% for the game and allowed the Seahawks to score 15 points off 14 turnovers and 15 more off 14 offensive rebounds.
“They were the tougher, more physical team, and most of the time in college basketball, the tougher team wins,” Claxton said. “They hang their hat on the defensive end and they found us really well.”
White had 21 points and 11 rebounds before fouling out with 1:44 left in overtime and Maleek Harden-Hayes and Donovan Newby had 17 points each for the Seahawks.
Hofstra looked to be in real trouble late in regulation as it had five straight empty possessions in the last 4:48 and UNCW took a 71-68 lead on Newby’s three-pointer with 2:33 to play.
The Pride tied it when Thomas was fouled by White on a three-point shot with 19.5 seconds left in regulation and made all three free throws. Farrar got off a hook shot in the lane before the regulation buzzer, but it caromed off the rim to send it to overtime.
UNCW not only had been statistically inferior to Hofstra in virtually every category but had lost their regular-season meeting, 70-46, on Jan. 19. Fueled by coach Takayo Siddle hanging the final score in their locker room, the Seahawks hung around even after Hofstra had 8-0 and 9-0 runs in the first half to build a 12-point lead.
“I guess that worked,” Siddle said of the tactic. “Even going into OT, we never wavered. Our guys had that look in their eyes.”
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
