By Ed Morrone
RICHMOND, Va.-Despite coming into last weekend’s CAA Tournament as the No. 3 seed, the Pride were pegged by experts as underdogs from the get-go.
The team’s quarterfinals opponent, Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), was a sentimental favorite considering the school is based in Richmond, the same city where the conference tournament is played each year. Many picked the Rams to win even though they were the No. 6 seed and barely outlasted No. 11 William & Mary in the first round.
The Pride ignored the many VCU clad fans and jumped on the Rams early, building a 31-17 lead in large part to sophomore guard Antoine Agudio, who scored 20 of his career-high 34 points in the first half. VCU made a run in the second half when it trimmed the deficit to three, but the Pride showed fortitude in holding off the determined Rams in the 72-66 victory.
“Hofstra was great tonight,” VCU head coach Jeff Capel said. “We couldn’t stay in front of them.”
The semifinals were no different.
The Pride was matched up with No. 2 George Mason for the second time in 11 days. In the team’s first meeting on Feb. 23, the Pride toppled the Patriots from the top 25, its first win ever over a ranked opponent. Still, Mason (who many think are an NCAA Tournament lock) came into Sunday’s semifinal favored, mainly because no one believed the Pride could defeat the Patriots again, mainly because no team had done so twice all season.
Again, the Pride ignored the naysayers, turning a 33-27 halftime deficit into a 58-49 victory. The Blue & Gold, led by junior Carlos Rivera’s 25 points and 10 rebounds, turned to its defense rather than its powerful offense, holding the mighty Patriots to just 16 second half points on 4-for-23 shooting.
“That’s something to be proud of,” Pride head coach Tom Pecora said. “There’s not a coach in the world who wouldn’t be happy with that.”
Against Mason, the day belonged to Rivera, who was phenomenal all weekend. He averaged 15 points in the three games and played in all 120 minutes en route to being named to the All-CAA Tournament team along with teammate Loren Stokes.
“I had to step it up,” Rivera said. “They’re a great defensive team. I just had to keep shooting when Loren and Adrian [Uter] fouled out. We’ve worked so hard for this.”
While Rivera and the Pride succumbed to UNC Wilmington in the championship game and lost out on the conference’s automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament, the wins over VCU and George Mason should prove to be significant as well. Whether the wins will be significant enough to secure a coveted at-large bid come Sunday evening remains to be seen, but the Pride still put itself in a position to play in the NCAA Tournament, which was the goal all along.
And if in fact the team’s name is among the 65 called on Sunday, odds are it will have no problem heading into the tournament as underdogs.