WASHINGTON, D.C. – For every punch that the Hofstra University Pride gave, the UNC-Wilmington (UNCW) Seahawks had a punch back. The No. 4 seed going into the tournament handed the No. 1 seed a 79-73 upset in overtime in the semifinal round of the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) men’s basketball tournament on Monday, March 6.

“All the credit goes to Wilmington,” said Hofstra head coach Speedy Claxton. “They were the tougher, more physical team, and most of the time in college basketball, the tougher team wins. They were the tougher team tonight, so they won the ballgame.”

It was a tough match up indeed, as the score stayed neck-and-neck throughout the first 40 minutes play as the lead changed eight different times.

“That was a great game,” said UNCW head coach Takayo Siddle. “You got to give credit to Hofstra, they were the No. 1 seed for a reason; they won the regular season for a reason.” 

This was a revenge match for the Seahawks, as the Pride showed them up 70-46 in their last meeting on Jan. 19, during the regular season.

“We wanted to show them how they tried to punk us, how they did punk us, in the first game,” Siddle explained. “I always say to these guys, ‘At some point in the game if you’re not tough enough, if you’re not competing like you need to, it’s going to catch up to you.’”

The Pride were outshot in every frame in the evening: 50% to 46.6% in the first half, 42.3% to 39.1% in the second and 33.3% to 0% in overtime.

“To have an off night, an off stretch, that’s kind of what happened tonight,” Claxton said. “We just got cold at the wrong time. We just missed shots tonight.”

“It’s obviously heartbreaking,” said Hofstra point guard and CAA player of the year Aaron Estrada. “I don’t think that any college player doesn’t want to be playing in March.” 

Despite the result, one positive to pull from this is Jaquan Carlos’ career-high 19-point performance.

“JC was great; he’s our floor leader, our general,” Claxton said. “For him to have the type of game that he had, it kind of sucks that we lost because it’s kind of like a wasted game, but he’s going to be a really good player in years to come.”

Not all hope is lost for Claxton and the Hofstra men’s basketball program. 

“I’ve been telling this team from day one that we have a championship caliber team, and we’ve been playing like it. It kind of sucks that we fell a little short of our goal,” Claxton said. “But we’ll bounce back, still a lot of ball to be played.”

Photo courtesy of Alexis Friedman / The Hofstra Chronicle