By Brian Bohl
RICHMOND, VA- Tom Pecora walked to the podium alone. Antoine Agudio stayed in the locker room; his emotions still too raw to make the trip to the postgame news conference after his record-setting collegiate career ended with another postseason disappointment.
Agudio tried desperately to shake off the worst half of the season for the Pride, scoring 25 of his 27 points in the final 20 minutes. But the senior guard couldn’t erase an 18-point halftime deficit as the eighth-seeded Pride lost, 81-66, to No. 9 Towson in the opening round of the CAA Tournament Friday afternoon.
Agudio was the team’s lone senior who saw playing time in the contest that ended the Pride’s season and snapped its streak of three straight NIT appearances. A sparse Richmond Coliseum crowd witnessed both Agudio and his younger teammates struggle to generate offense in the first half.
Hofstra shot a season-low 13.8 percent from the field in the opening period, shooting 0-7 from three-point range and 4-29 overall.
Agudio started 1-9 before heating up in the second.
The school’s all-time leading scorer couldn’t overcome the Pride’s 24 turnovers despite hitting eight of his final 11 shots.
Freshman Charles Jenkins was the only other double-figure scorer, contributing 14 points.
“If I’m coaching effort…that’s why we won 12 games this year,” said Pecora after his team finished 12-18 while Towson improved to 13-17. “At halftime, I wanted to go in and start screaming again, and I said to myself, ‘If you need to do that in the CAA Tournament, then this is beyond them getting fired up.’ I’m tired of hearing my own voice.”
Pecora saw the results improve in the second half. Hofstra applied full-court pressure and even cut the lead to 51-48 lead following Agudio’s steal and assist on a Jenkins’ jump shot. Before losing all momentum at the neutral site, Josh Thornton hit his biggest shot of game, nailing a three-pointer to reestablish a two-possession lead.
“Josh had some key moments where his shots stopped their runs,” Towson coach Pat Kennedy said.
Thornton beat the Pride consistently from the perimeter, torching Jenks while pouring in a game-high 22 points. Tony Durant, older brother of NBA star Kevin Durant, added 20 points to provide the complementary frontcourt scoring. Junior Hairston added eight points off the bench and C.C. Williams’ speed facilitated fast-break baskets that put the Pride away.
“You put yourself in that deep of a hole, you expend a great amount of energy,” Pecora said. “Our bench was very inconsistent in the first half, as it has been all season. We had bonehead fouls and all of a sudden, momentum is the other way.”
Junior Dane Johnson established a low post presence early in the contest, scoring Hofstra’s first six points in the opening 2:13, but just two more the rest of the way. Towson utilized a 1-3-1 defense to minimize Johnson’s impact. The zone coverage also harassed Agudio and held Jenkins scoreless in the first half as the Tigers built a 31-13 lead.
“Excuses only satisfy the people who make them,” Pecora said. “It’s March. They’ve logged a ton of minutes. Let’s all grow up here.
“I would hope we weren’t rattled. If it was the first time we had [many] turnovers this year, I’d say we got rattled. But we’ve had some doozies. We’ve had some games that looked like dodge ball.”
Johnson, Jenkins Darren Townes, and Greg Johnson will all return to next year’s team. Pecora, who hasn’t lead the Pride to a conference tournament win since 2006, said those four players need to prove they can be leaders following Agudio’s graduation.
“I told them flat out ‘You’ve become role players from the inconsistent effort this season,'” Pecora said. “We’ll just move on and adjust.”
Jenkins captured the CAA Rookie of the Year award by averaging 15 points and four rebounds. The Queens product caught fire in the second half, hitting all five of his field goal attempts before fouling out. Jenkins will be expected to carry the offense after Agudio collected 2,276 points in his four seasons.
“I said this legacy will be mine and yours,” Pecora said. “Hopefully it will be a blip on the screen if we turn the corner next year. That’s what I except to happen. I feel bad because it’s [Agudio’s] only senior year. I’m going to be here for a long time. But we’re all part of the win and we’re all part of the loss.”
Towson prevented a collapse, posting five straight defensive stops during a 15-1 run in the final minutes despite facing a full-court press.
Williams secured the victory, stealing the ball from Jenkins and passing it to Thornton. Thornton then hit Durant in-stride, launching a hard pass to set up his dunk. The Tigers went up 58-50 and clinched a meeting against top-ranked VCU.
“There’s only one theory about pressure defense: you have to beat it and go score,” Kennedy said. “A good pressure team will keep pressing you. You have to go score and knock down threes, get to rim [and] be super aggressive.”