The week of Monday, March 9, and Thursday, March 12, will go down in Hofstra University’s history books. The school’s basketball program, known as “Guard U,” birthed talents such as Speedy Claxton, Charles Jenkins, Dia LaBella, Justin Wright-Foreman and more. Guard U is now more known for its clutch moments from hometown heroes in the Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) Tournament.
On Monday, March 9, the Hofstra men’s basketball team came fresh off a dominant win over the College of William & Mary, in which they won by 31 points and scored their most points against a Division 1 opponent: 92. The Pride’s top scorer and this season’s CAA Player of the Year, Cruz Davis, led the way with 30 points. Towson University’s men’s basketball team was also coming off a blowout win; they defeated the College of Charleston 81-56. The Tigers’ top scorer and last season’s CAA Player of the Year, Tyler Tejada, led the game with 30 points. Hofstra’s game against Towson was set up to be one of, if not the best, game of the tournament.
The game was chippy, with multiple scuffles breaking out from hard contact and diving bodies. Tied at 52 with four minutes left, neither team was able to buy a basket. Hofstra freshman Preston Edmead knocked down a 3-pointer to end the two-minute drought. With just one minute to go, Tejada hit an and-one over Davis to tie the game up at 55, putting Davis in serious trouble with four personal fouls. Edmead and Tejada each missed their shot, sending the game into overtime.
Entering overtime, Hofstra quickly jumped to a three-point lead, but Tejada, once again, nailed an and-one over Davis, getting him to foul out of the game. Edmead, Hofstra’s Rookie of the Year, stepped up to the challenge, later knocking down a 28-foot 3-point shot, which put the Pride ahead by four. Towson was able to tie it back up with a Tejada midrange shot. Hofstra missed and Jaquan Womack made a bucket with 20 seconds to go. With Hofstra holding the possession, everyone in the building knew that Edmead would be the one to take the shot; the game was in his hands. He dribbled to the right wing, stepped back and banked a 27-foot contested 3-pointer with 0.3 seconds left on the clock.
“It means so much being a kid from Long Island,” Edmead said. “This program is based in Long Island; it means everything. I wouldn’t want to win with anyone besides this team.”
On Thursday, March 12, the Hofstra women’s basketball team was coming fresh off a dominant win over Northeastern University. They won the game by 16 points. The Towson women’s basketball team was also coming off a blowout win, defeating Drexel University 74-58. The parallels between the men’s and women’s basketball teams were evident.
Neither Hofstra nor Towson pulled away in the first three quarters, despite both putting on good runs throughout the game. It took until the fourth quarter for the Tigers’ top scorer, India Johnston, to get going, but when she was on, there was no stopping her. She scored 14 points in the first nine minutes of the final quarter, shooting 3-3 from 3-point range in that span. She showed off an incredible level of shot-making ability by knocking down a step back 3-pointer and an and-one floater, which put Towson up by four points with a little over a minute to go.
Chloe Sterling brought the Pride within two points with a pair of free throws, and 5-foot-7-inch Alarice Gooden had the most underrated moment of the game by stopping the 6-foot-3-inch forward Hannah Dereje at the rim. This allowed the Pride to have a chance to either tie or win the game. They were down 71-69 with just over 19 seconds to go – just a one second difference from the time Edmead had. Sterling found Emma Von Essen battling through a double screen. Von Essen got to the left wing. She stepped back, dropping Towson’s Masyn Marchbanks to the ground. Von Essen proceeded to knock down the game-winning 3-pointer with 2.6 seconds remaining.
“My teammates and my coaches just had confidence in me,” Von Essen said. “They drew [the play] up for me, and I was like ‘Now I gotta hit this shot.’ This is the best feeling in the world for me; I’m never gonna feel this as a senior again.”
Each set of Hofstra and Towson teams came into their matchups directly from a blowout. Both members of the Pride who hit the shot were guards from Long Island: Edmead from Deer Park and Von Essen from Rockville Centre. Edmead and Von Essen both knocked down a step back 3-pointer from the wing, and both knocked Towson out of the CAA Tournament in the same week. This was a “two”-in-a-million scenario, which is now the standard for the newly appointed “Clutch U.”
