2022 CAA Men's Basketball Championship

CAA Men's Tournament: Comebacks & Clutch Performers

CAA Men's Tournament: Comebacks & Clutch Performers

The intensity of postseason college basketball was evident from the opening tip between Towson and Northeastern to the final horn of the day's last game.

Mar 7, 2022 by Kyle Kensing
CAA Men's Tournament: Comebacks & Clutch Performers

Comebacks and clutch performances defined the quarterfinal round of the 2022 Colonial Athletic Association Tournament. 

After Northeastern and William & Mary tipped off the CAA’s return to Washington, D.C. with an overtime affair on Saturday, Sunday’s full slate continued the theme. The intensity of single-elimination, postseason college basketball was evident from the opening tip between Towson and Northeastern through the final horn of the day’s last game between Charleston and Hofstra. 

Born from that intensity are the emotions that make March. For the teams that lost in CAA Tournament play, the 2021-22 season likely comes to an end. For those squads’ seniors, it marked the end of their careers—but not their connection to their schools. 

“Their relationship with Elon isn’t done. It’s forever,” Phoenix coach Mike Schrage said of his team’s seniors. 

Drexel, which went on a remarkable run to the NCAA Tournament during the pandemic-impacted 2020-21, endured another series of unexpected twists in 2021-22 that ended in the quarterfinals despite 28 points from Camren Wynter. 

“You want to keep playing. You want another game,” Dragons coach Zach Spiker said. “But you try and be incredibly thankful and grateful for the guys [who] have chosen Drexel and chose to come to Drexel when it maybe wasn’t as easy as it is right now. And this guy [Wynter] deserves all the credit in the world.” 

There’s undeniable heartache when the season comes to an end, but the potential for triumph is what drives the Madness. 

Delaware coach Martin Ingelsby may have put it best. 

“I’m envious of those guys. There’s no greater time for a college basketball player than March,” he said. 

No. 1 Towson 68, No. 9 Northeastern 61 

Success in March sometimes comes down to an individual being able to take over in crunch time. Nicolas Timberlake was just that player for Towson in its quarterfinal win over Northeastern. 

Timberlake went into halftime with just two points and the Tigers trailed Northeastern. His 23 points after intermission fueled top-seeded Towson’s rally, flipping what was a 10-point deficit early in the contest to a double-digit-point lead in the second half. 

“We only got [Nicolas] one shot in the first half. I thought the guys did a really good job of finding him in the second half, especially Cam [Holden] and Terry [Nolan],” Tigers coach Pat Skerry said. 

On one of his five 3-pointers, made with less than six minutes remaining, Timberlake held his follow-through then threw his hands in the air as the Tigers pushed their lead to 11 points. 

“Pure excitement. Just trying to get the crowd hyped up,” Timberlake said of his reaction to the basket. 

“Got to watch it fall through the net, pose a little bit before I had to get back on defense before I got yelled at.”

Towson needed every bit of that cushion, as a gutsy Northeastern effort cut the deficit down to a single point with two minutes remaining. But the Tigers endured down the stretch thanks to tight defense, free throws from Holden and Timberlake, and a key basket by Chase Parr, who played critical minutes in Charles Thompson’s absence. 

Thompson’s exit with an ankle injury looms ahead of Monday’s semifinals against Delaware. 

“Charles is a whole different level of toughness, so for him not to be able to finish is concerning,” Skerry said. 

“If he can’t go, somebody else has got to be ready…But if there’s a way, Charles will go [in the semifinals].”

No. 5 Delaware 66, No. 4 Drexel 56

Defending CAA Tournament champion Drexel rallied from an 11-point halftime deficit, but the Dragons could not weather Jyare Davis’ big-time play down the stretch. 

Davis, the CAA Rookie of the Year, posted a double-double of 17 points and 10 rebounds—13 and six of which came in the second half. 

One run in particular put the win away for the Blue Hens. After Coletrane Washington made a 3-pointer that pulled Drexel within one possession, Kevin Anderson responded with a triple of his own. 

Then, Davis went to work. 

He scored on back-to-back and-ones to push the Delaware lead to 12 points, effectively slamming the door on the Dragons despite a furious comeback effort. 

“Right now, we have a good togetherness,” Davis said. 

“Throughout a game, people are going to go on runs…but throughout that, we make sure to keep a level head.” 

Delaware gets a third crack at co-regular season champion Towson in Monday’s semifinals. The Tigers won in Newark on Jan. 24, 69-62, but the Blue Hens built a nine-point lead in the second half at Towson just three days later. 

Towson rallied and pulled away for the home win—more than a month later. Court conditions resulted in the postponement of the game to Feb. 28, when the Tigers played an excellent 18 minutes to secure their first CAA championship. 

“We know we’ve got a heck of a challenge tomorrow night against a really, really good Towson team, but it’s great to be on that stage to have the opportunity to do it,” Ingelsby said. 

No. 2 UNC Wilmington 75, No. 7 Elon 58 

Ten times prior to its quarterfinal win over Elon, CAA co-regular season champion UNCW rallied from a double-digit-point difference. Doing so on an 11th occasion wasn’t exactly old hat for the Seahawks, however, given the stakes of their win over Elon. 

“Definitely different, because it’s win or go home in a tournament,” Jaylen Sims said. 

“We have to be laser-focused in the tournament.” 

Elon, which went on surprise runs to the semifinals in 2020 and the championship game in 2021, looked poised to do it once more. The Phoenix built an 18-4 lead early thanks in part to Hunter McIntosh’s hot start. 

Elon capitalized on a slow offensive start for James Baker Jr. and Shykeim Phillips, the latter of whom played just six first-half minutes due to foul trouble. Baker and Phillips finished with 17 combined points, all of which came in the second half. 

Phillips in particular helped ignite the rally with six points in the half’s first three minutes. 

“He’s done that multiple times this year, coming in the second half after being in foul trouble, and he’s got off to hot starts early,” UNCW coach Takayo Siddle said. 

“It was huge having him start off the way he did in the second half.” 

“Second half, give them credit,” Schrage said. “We set the tone in the first half, they set the tone in the second.” 

Even as UNCW pulled ahead, Elon hung around—until Sims dropped the hammer with a critical 3-pointer. 

No. 6 Charleston 92, No. 3 Hofstra 76 

The lower-seeded teams built sizable first-half leads in all four of Sunday’s quarterfinals, but only Delaware maintained its edge before the nightcap. Like Northeastern and Elon before it, Charleston’s initial advantage appeared in danger of evaporating. 

The Cougars built a lead of as many as 24 points behind the show-stopping play of John Meeks. 

A veteran Hofstra team, paced by a combined 40 points from upperclassmen Jalen Ray and Aaron Estrada, whittled the deficit all the way down to seven points. All momentum appeared to be on the Pride’s side. 

That was before Brenden Tucker ripped off six straight Charleston points. Meeks followed that up with five straight, and Tucker tacked on a bucket in the lane for good measure. After having their lead cut to just seven, the Cougars responded with a leave-no-doubt, end-of-game push that ballooned the advantage back to 18 points. 

Charleston advances for a semifinal showdown with UNCW, which won both regular-season matchups by just 14 combined points. 

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