Mo Cassara plopped himself down at the podium late Sunday
afternoon and promptly realized he was just as stuck for adjectives as those
seated before him.
“Get it started with a statement,” Hofstra sports info guru
Brian Bohl said.
Cassara rubbed his right eye with his right hand before
pulling his right hand down and rubbing both eyes and the bridge of his nose.
“If you can,” Bohl said.
Finally Cassara came up with some words to begin describing
what he’d just seen: The Flying Dutchmen’s 103-100 double overtime victory over
Marshall that will be remembered as one of the greatest regular season
basketball games ever played at Calkins Hall, the PFC, the Arena or whatever
building my beautiful daughter Molly (the sleeping good luck charm who is now
3-0 in home games) sees the Dutchmen in come the fall of 2030.
“What a difference a week makes, you know?” Cassara said
with a tired laugh. “A week ago right now we’re 0-2, we’re in West Lafayette,
Indiana, we couldn’t make a basket. We lost two games by 29 points. We were
just almost in disarray, if that’s a word I could use to describe us. Credit to
these guys, I’ve never seen a team in a week come back and play the way that we
did.
“So proud of our guys. What an incredible win. To complete a
3-0 weekend is almost a marvel.”
It was one of those games which demands context and appreciation,
even if the facts and the stats say more than any pontifications from a wordy
windbag ever could. So why don’t we start there?
1.) Less than 24 hours after the Dutchmen put six players
into double figures for the first time since I started paying attention—that’s
a long time—they had four players with at least 14 points and two more with
nine apiece. The Dutchmen never trailed in regulation but squandered a 12-point
lead in the final 6:57 and surrendered a pair of game-tying 3-pointers in the
final 91 seconds, including Elijah Pittman’s open 3-pointer that forced
overtime with seven seconds left. The Dutchmen finally fell behind by three
more than midway through the first overtime, crawled back to tie the game with
three free throws 56 seconds apart and held Marshall scoreless the rest of the
period (and survived three missed shots, including a 3-pointer at the buzzer).
Shaq Stokes (more on him shortly) scored the first six points of overtime as
the Dutchmen never trailed, but Marshall got within a basket an incredible four
times in the final minute. Freshman Kentrell Washington, who played just nine
minutes in regulation, drained three of four free throws in the last 38 seconds
before Stokes put the Dutchmen over 100 against a Division I opponent for the
first time in 21 seasons with four free throws in the final seven seconds.
There were 69 total fouls, 99 free throws attempted, 143
field goals attempted and 203 total points (duh) as both teams reached the
century mark for the first time in Hofstra history. Four players fouled out,
and at one point, Marshall had five players on the court with five fouls. The
Thundering Herd’s DeAndre Kane had a triple-double in defeat (33 points, 11
rebounds, 10 assists).
It was awesome to watch, if a bit nerve-wracking to
participate in as a player or a coach.
“I’m shot,” Moussa Kone said.
“I’m 23,” Stevie Mejia said. “I’m finished.”
“I tell you what, I’m exhausted,” Cassara said earlier. “I
mean, I’m exhausted. There were more end of game situations in that game than
I’ve ever been a part of. We had an opportunity to foul in regulation, we didn’t,
we gave up a three. We lost our man on a switch and in overtime they hit
another three. So I’m over there killing myself.”
2.) Jimmy Hall had his second double-double in five
collegiate games, and it was even better than the boxscore would indicate. He
had 10 rebounds alone in the first half, as the Dutchmen asserted themselves
against the far bigger Thundering Herd, and finished with 14 boards and 16
points in an amazing 44 minutes. This is a FRESHMAN playing 44 minutes 15 days
after he was benched for the first half OF AN EXHIBITION. for goodness sakes.
We haven’t seen a freshmen big man like this since Kenny Adeleke, and if you
root for Hofstra, join us in praying we aren’t discussing Adeleke similarities
when Hall is a senior somewhere else.
And we haven’t seen a pair of underclassmen big men at
Hofstra like Hall and Moussa Kone since, well, ever. Kone also had a
double-double (14 points and 10 rebounds) before fouling out. He has matched or
exceeded his freshman year high in points (six) four times and matched or
exceeded last year’s high in rebounds (nine) twice. All caveats about small
sample sizes apply, but through five games, Hall and Kone are averaging a
combined 21.6 points and 16.4 rebounds per game. Hello.
3.) The misery of last year only makes it seem like forever
since the Dutchmen had a player as clutch as Stokes. The statistical revolution
in sports has led to much debate about clutch play and how it is impossible to
measure. Maybe so, but the eyes don’t lie, and Stokes has the Jenkins and
Speedy clutch gene. Who else would find his legs in the second overtime, after
shooting 4-of-17 in the first 45 minutes, and score 10 points in the SECOND
overtime and drain seven of eight free throws, thereby making up for missing
the free throw in the final minute of regulation that likely would have sealed
the victory? All less than 48 hours after draining a game-winning 3-pointer
with three seconds to play? Everything is going so well, I fully expect the
NCAA to declare he has to go back to Hawaii at any moment.
4.) The Dutchmen have now won two games they would have lost
last year, when they were (as you no doubt know and/or remember by now) 1-4 in
games decided by three points or less and 2-8 in games decided by six points or
less. Better depth is surely a factor (eight players have played at least 13
minutes in all five games, something that happened just six times all of last
season) but the Dutchmen have the intestinal fortitude and intangibles they
lacked a year ago. Last season’s team loses this game because it couldn’t get
the momentum back late in the second half (the first game against James
Madison), or because it missed key free throws late (the first game against
Delaware) or because it suffered breakdowns on every defensive possession down
the stretch (pick a loss, any loss). This year’s team has a bunch of
players—Hall, Stokes and Taran Buie, the latter of whom hit his first shot of
the game for the third straight game) clearly have that edge that infuses the
Dutchmen with a layer of late-game toughness, as does Mejia, who is finally
healthy and able to impart his will upon the team. Mejia scored a career-high
22 points and earned sub-regional MVP honors
“When you have three games in three days, guys are tired,
and you could just see the physical and the mental exhaustion,” Cassara said.
“To be honest with you, we were in a little better shape and we were able to
kind of hang in there and get some fouls down the stretch and get to the line.
How about Kentrell Washington stepping up and hitting three out of four free
throws as a true freshman who didn’t play very many minutes?”
5.) Some more stats and minutiae: The Dutchmen are 3-2 for
the 23rd time in program history…Stokes’ 46 minutes were the most by
a Dutchmen since Jenkins (49 minutes) and Cornelius Vines (48 minutes) were
ironmen in the Dutchmen’s last double overtime game, a loss to Northeastern in
the 2010 CAA Tournament. And Hall’s 44 minutes were the most by a freshman
since Jenkins played 44 minutes against Manhattan in the second game of his
career in 2007…The Dutchmen improved to 17-6 in overtime games and 5-2 in
multi-overtime since the 2000-01 season…This was the second time in four years
the Dutchmen have won an overtime game in which they didn’t trail UNTIL
overtime. The Dutchmen edged UNC Wilmington in similar fashion in the 2008-09 regular season finale…Washington’s performance at the free throw line in the
second overtime conjured up memories of Mike Davis-Sabb against James Madison
in the Dutchmen’s most recent double-overtime win in February 2009. Because of
disqualifications, Davis-Sabb was pressed into duty in the final minute of the
second overtime after sitting since the first half and promptly drained two
free throws to seal the game.
3 STARS OF THE GAME (vs. Marshall 11/17)
3: Jimmy Hall
2: Shaq Stokes
1: Stevie Mejia
SEASON STANDINGS
11: Jimmy Hall
5: Stevie Mejia
4: Moussa Kone
4: Shaq Stokes
3: Stephen Nwaukoni
2: Taran Buie
1: David Imes
Email Jerry at defiantlydutch@yahoo.com
or follow Defiantly Dutch at http://twitter.com/defiantlydutch.
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