Recapping the Four Saturday CAA Basketball Games With Superlatives

The first edition of Colonial Athletic Association Superlatives in a while comes at a time in the conference that couldn’t be full of more action, excitement and craze. As each of the teams in the conference (outside of Old Dominion) fights for postseason seeding and berths, let’s recap the four games in the Association on Saturday with some superlatives!

Most “Wow” Game

If you’ve been following the Georgia State Panthers this season, you know that head coach Ron Hunter’s club has enormous potential to erupt on the offensive end of the floor on any given night. But, damn, beating George Mason on the road by nearly 20 points is impressive. Wow, should teams eligible for the CAA Tourney be thanking the basketball heavens that the Panthers, and R.J. Hunter, won’t be down in Richmond.

Best Momentum-Building Win

After winning two straight-games, following Saturday night’s victory over Old Dominion, the William & Mary Tribe have now given themselves a 1.5-game cushion over the seven-seed and are now right on the heels of Drexel for the five-seed in the CAA Tournament as well. If you want to find a definition of momentum in the dictionary, sophomore guard Marcus Thornton will probably appear under the despcrition in the “examples” section. He’s averaging 28.5 points on 50 percent shooting from three-point land in the team’s last two victories as well.

Most Devastating Loss

As every team in the CAA has five or fewer games left to play in the final stretch of this regular season, each and every single game matters. For the Hofstra Pride, this home stretch is vital for avoiding the seven-seed in the CAA tournament and having to face a two-seed that will be pissed they didn’t receive a first round bye. Losing to Towson at home after leading by six in the second half after William & Mary won is just crushing.

Most Worrisome Loss

The Northeastern Huskies followed up their first CAA-loss to GSU with four-straight victories, but have now lost two straight close games as senior co-captain, leading scorer and CAA Player of the Year candidate, Joel Smith, has been bothered by a bum ankle. Saturday’s loss to UNCW on the road, after leading by six at one point in the second half, following a confusing loss to Delaware at home is now the second-straight game the Huskies lacked poise during crunch time—something they’ve excelled at all season long. It never looked like it would come to this, but now Huskies fans will need to hope that James Madison can beat Delaware Sunday night and Northeastern can defeat JMU at home on Wednesday. That scenario would put the Huskies just a game away from clinching the outright conference title and the top seed down in Richmond. Northeastern needs to improve down the stretch of games, or at least return to where they were earlier in the year.

 

Jake Fischer is the CAA Columnist for Rant Sports-NCAA Basketball. He also hosts the CAA Relay Podcast. Make sure to follow Jake on Twitter @JakeLFischer.