By Tim Robertson
RICHMOND, Va. Tom Pecora’s bunch is still hoping for more games in a postseason tournament this season, but its exit in the quarterfinal of the CAA playoffs to Old Dominion certainly throws a chair into that plan.
With the Pride’s 52-51 defeat, the Big Dance is out of the question. Its return home before George Mason or Old Dominion spells “bubble burst” for the NIT. With the usual unpredictably of conference tournaments, the chances of a bid to the College Basketball Invitational or the Collegeinsider.com Tournament may not happen.
“You walk away a 1-point winner and you have all the answers,” said Old Dominion coach Blaine Taylor after his win. “I bet Tom [Pecora’s] bunch feels like they were so close.”
And they were as the Pride put up a heckuva fight ñ thanks to, as usual, No. 22.
Charles Jenkins, who led the Pride with 27 points and six rebounds on Saturday against ODU, saw his buzzer-beating try skim off ODU forward Jonathan Adams’ hand – that according to Adams – and into the air. After falling to the floor, it’s hard to say if Jenkins saw the ball fall too.
“I just wanted to score … I just wanted it to go in the basket,” a quiet Jenkins said following the game. Jenkins spent the press conference staring at the stat sheet with his head in his hands.
Pecora wasn’t as distraught and he shouldn’t be. As Pecora said, Jenkins will don a Hofstra jersey for two more seasons.
“I will live and die with the ball in [Jenkins’] hands,” Pecora said.
With 3.8 seconds left in the game, and down by a point, Hofstra inbounded the ball to Jenkins. The fact that ODU could guess that ahead of time didn’t faze the Hofstra coaching staff.
“I was thrilled we got him the ball. I really thought he’d be the decoy on the play,” Pecora said. “We were able to get him the ball, and he got a fairly decent look at it.”
Hofstra didn’t lose the game on Jenkins’ final shot; however, they lost it in the eight minutes they went without a bucket in the second half. They lost it when they went 12 minutes of the second half with five points. They lost it on the glass ñ losing the rebounding battle by a dozen.
“We aren’t accustomed to that happening,” he said.
The Pride entered the CAA playoffs ranked fifth in rebounding in the country, but it didn’t show. Old Dominion turned 16 offensive rebounds into extra possessions and extra points.
“I thought our kids were very smart getting to the glass and getting second possessions,” Taylor said.
The Pride carried a single point lead into halftime, but fell behind by as much as 10 due to its slump. While ODU didn’t storm out to the 20-point lead they probably should’ve, their team didn’t suffer from an impenetrable hoop. After all, they still had Gerald Lee.
Lee, a CAA first-teamer, didn’t just “pace” the Monarchs or “lead” his team to victory. He was that victory. He was the team. Lee dumped in 30 points – nearly 60 percent of ODU’s scoring – and added 10 rebounds. The 6-foot 10-inch forward shot 13-19 from the floor, while the rest of his team went 8-35.
“Gerald Lee played more like Tim Duncan today,” Pecora said. “He has got the best feet in college basketball, as far as I’m concerned.”
Hofstra didn’t have an answer for Lee, who received beatings from four Pride big men. Hofstra threw double and triple teams at Lee when he had the ball, and when he didn’t, but it was all for naught.
“One of the things [Lee] does so very efficiently is he plays to his strengths. He doesn’t try to do anything he isn’t capable of doing and that’s what great players do,” Pecora said.
To get to the quarterfinals, Hofstra stifled UNC-Wilmington’s offense, and refuse to allow UNCW back into the game once the Seahawks shooting heated in the second half.
UNCW shot just 11 percent from behind the arc in the first half and trailed by 10 at the break. Hotter shooting 6-10, led by junior guard Johnny Wolf ñ kept the game close in the second half. Wolf’s 22 points wasn’t enough as the Pride ended UNCWís season with a 79-66 win.
For Hofstra, sophomore captain Charles Jenkins once again led the Pride to the victory. When UNCW pressed Hofstra in the second half to cut the lead to six at one point, it was Jenkins that drove to the lane and scored four of the Pride’s next five baskets. Jenkins finished with 27 points, eight points better than his season average.
“Coach [Pecora] tells me to get in the paint, and when I get in the paint I can create plays for teammates, as well as myself,” said Jenkins after the game.
Hofstra’s low-post game overpowered the smaller Seahawks as sophomore Greg Washington posted a double-double with 14 points and 12 rebounds. Washington was able to infiltrate the Seahawks’ 2-3 zone and drain several jumpers. Hofstra coach Tom Pecora praised Washington after the game for his play off the bench, but told him he better play the same way when he starts next season.
“When people zone us, he is a great weapon to have with his size and his ability to shoot from the high-post area,” Pecora said.
After an improvement of nine wins over last season’s campaign, Pecora will look to his core of next season’s juniors- Washington, Jenkins and Nathaniel Lester- for an even better season.
“As a coach, I’m already thinking about next year’s group,” he said.