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The skid hit five games Saturday afternoon for the Flying Dutchmen, who led by as many eight points in the first half and trailed by three points in the final minute before falling to unbeaten defending league champion UNC Wilmington, 84-76. The Dutchmen will attempt to avoid the program’s second-worst start of the CAA era tonight, when they host Towson at the Arena. Here’s a quick look back at the loss to the Seahawks and a look ahead to the Tigers.
THE MOST RECENT GAME SUMMARIZED IN ONE PARAGRAPH
Rokas Gustys snapped out of his slump by scoring 15 points and pulling down 16 rebounds and Deron Powers scored a team-high 20 points and finished with a game-high eight assists, but it wasn’t enough as the Dutchmen lost to UNC Wilmington to 1-5 in the CAA. Justin Wright-Foreman (13 points) and Brian Bernardi (12 points) also scored in double figures for the Dutchmen, who led for 17:09 in the first half but never led again after Denzel Ingram’s 3-pointer just before the first half buzzer. Hunter Sabety added eight points, all in the first half and five rebounds.
3 STARS OF THE GAME (vs. UNC Wilmington 1/14)
3: Rokas Gustys
2: Deron Powers
1: Hunter Sabety
SEASON STANDINGS
Justin Wright-Foreman 26
Deron Powers 21
Eli Pemberton 21
Rokas Gustys 18
Brian Bernardi 12
Ty Greer 9
Jamall Robinson 5
Hunter Sabety 2
CHAMPS WIN AGAIN
Last Saturday’s game against UNC Wilmington was the first between the Dutchmen and Seahawks since last March’s CAA championship game, which UNCW won, 80-73, in overtime. With the Dutchmen’s loss, the team that lost the CAA final the previous season fell to 8-7 in the subsequent season’s first rematch. (Drexel did not play VCU in 2012-13 because the Rams left for the Atlantic 10)
IT STILL CONTINUES TO GETS LATE EARLY OUT HERE
The Dutchmen fell to 1-5 in CAA play on Saturday. It is only the third time since joining the conference in 2001-02 that the Dutchmen have been 1-5 or worse through six league games. The Dutchmen opened 1-5 in 2007-08, when they finished 8-10 in the CAA, and 0-6 in 2011-12, when they finished 3-15.
Of the 30 teams to open 1-5 or 0-6 between 2001-02 when the "America East four” saved, err, joined the CAA — and 2015-16, none have recovered to finish .500 in league play. Only the 2007-08 Dutchmen earned as many as eight wins. Overall, the 30 teams have finished with an average of four wins in CAA play.
THE SKID HITS FIVE
With five straight losses, the Dutchmen have lost more CAA games in the last 17 days as they did all of last season. The losing streak is the longest for the Dutchmen since a five-game losing streak during the 2013-14 season, Joe Mihalich’s first at the helm. The Dutchmen have led for a total of 24:33 since Daniel Dixon’s buzzer-beating 3-pointer dropped through the net on Jan. 2.
THE WRIGHT STUFF AS A SOPHOMORE
After scoring just 44 points as a freshman, Justin Wright-Foreman has emerged as one of the Dutchmen’s top scorers this season. He was the 27th Hofstra freshman in the CAA era to score fewer than 100 points but already has more points as a sophomore than any of his predecessors. Wright-Foreman surpassed David Imes on Saturday to officially take the biggest leap of any Hofstra sophomore since 2001-02.
JUSTIN WRIGHT-FOREMAN 257 points 2016-17 (44 as a freshman)
David Imes 251 points 2010-11 (25 as a freshman)
Ziggy Sestokas 219 points 2006-07 (29 as a freshman)
Greg Washington 169 points 2008-09 (33 as a freshman)
Gibran Washington 158 points 2002-03 (76 as a freshman)
GUSTYS GETS BACK ON TRACK
Junior center Rokas Gustys produced his seventh double-double of the season and the 30th of his career on Saturday, when he had 15 points and 16 rebounds. It was the first double-double since Jan. 2 for Gustys, who had 15 points and 24 rebounds combined in the subsequent three games.
OVER THE AIR
Hofstra will provide both a video and radio feed of today’s game at the Pride Productions hub.
SCOUTING TOWSON
The Tigers, under sixth-year head coach Pat Skerry, are 10-9 this season and 2-4 in CAA play. Towson has won two straight, including a 74-67 victory on Saturday over Northeastern, which entered the game unbeaten in the CAA.
The Dutchmen and Tigers had one mutual foe during non-league play. The Dutchmen routed SUNY-Stony Brook, 96-58, while Towson had a similarly easy time in beating the Patriots 88-63.
In CAA play, the Dutchmen and Tigers have each lost to UNC Wilmington, James Madison, College of Charleston and Elon and have each beaten Delaware.
The Dutchmen, who were picked sixth in the CAA preseason poll, enter today ranked 178th at KenPom.com and 206th in the RPI. The Tigers, who were picked second, are ranked 149th at KenPom.com and 126th in the RPI.
Per the wise guys in Vegas, for entertainment purposes only, the Dutchmen are 3-point favorites.
The Dutchmen rank third among CAA teams in scoring (78.1 ppg) but are allowing 77.2 ppg, the most in the league.
The Dutchmen rank fifth in the CAA in field goal percentage (44.6%) and second in 3-point field goal percentage (37.5%) They are allowing opposing teams to shoot 45.2 percent overall, eighth in the league, and 39.3 percent from beyond the arc, which is last.
The Tigers rank seventh in scoring (71.5 ppg) and are allowing 66.8 ppg, which ranks second in the CAA.
The Tigers are seventh in the CAA in field goal percentage (44.3%) and are last in 3-point field goal percentage (29.4%). They are percentage points ahead of College of Charleston for the CAA lead in field goal percentage defense (40.7%) and fifth in 3-point field goal percentage defense (34.1%).
ALL-TIME VS. TOWSON
Hofstra is 39-24 against Towson in a series that began during the 1982-83 season, when both schools were in the East Coast Conference. Hofstra and Towson opposed one another in the ECC and the North Atlantic Conference/America East before moving together to the CAA for the 2001-02 school year. Hofstra has faced only three opponents as often as it’s faced Towson: Longtime conference rivals Delaware and Drexel as well as Manhattan, which Hofstra played for the 63rd time in November.
The Dutchmen earned a series sweep last season, when they routed the Tigers, 90-58, in Towson on Jan. 2 before surviving a missed buzzer-beating 3-pointer to escape with an 84-82 win at the Arena on Feb. 18. The Dutchmen have won three straight against Towson, which won five consecutive games between the 2012-13 and 2014-15 seasons.
REPLACING THE MISSING SCORING—AND THEN SOME
The Dutchmen lost a whopping 50.3 ppg from last year’s squad via the graduations of Juan’ya Green (17.8 ppg), Ameen Tanksley 15.9 ppg), Denton Koon (11.4 ppg) and Malik Nichols (5.2 ppg). But they have “found” 55 ppg this season via five players who didn’t play for the team in 2015-16, plus the emergence of sophomore Justin Wright-Foreman.
Eli Pemberton (13.4)
Deron Powers (13.2)
Justin Wright-Foreman (12.3)***
Ty Greer (8.4)
Jamall Robinson (4.1)
Hunter Sabety (3.6)
***The Wright-Foreman average subtracts the 1.2 ppg he averaged last season to better account for the “found” points.
WRIGHT-FOREMAN IS THE FINISHER
Sophomore guard Justin Wright-Foreman continued to thrive in the second half Saturday, when he scored eight of his 13 points in the second half. Of his 257 points this season, 178 have been scored in the second half.
PEMBERTON HITS THE TOP 10
Eli Pemberton, who was the first Hofstra freshman since Antoine Agudio (2004-05) to open his career by scoring in double digits in his first five games, is already the 19th Dutchmen freshman in the CAA era to score at least 100 points in his debut season. Pemberton currently ranks eighth on the CAA-era freshman scoring list.
1.) Antoine Agudio, 452 (2004-05)
2.) Charles Jenkins, 436 (2007-08)
3.) Kenny Adeleke, 433 (2001-02)
4.) Loren Stokes, 374 (2003-04)
5.) Chaz Williams, 325 (2009-10)
6.) Jamall Robinson, 312 (2013-14)
7.) Halil Kanacevic, 294 (2009-10)
8.) ELI PEMBERTON, 254 (2016-17)
9.) Carlos Rivera, 226 (2003-04)
10.) Nathaniel Lester, 189 (2007-08)
GUSTYS CLOSES IN ON THE TOP FIVE
Junior forward Rokas Gustys pulled down 16 rebounds on Saturday to move five rebounds away from moving past Kenny Adeleke and reaching the top five.
5.) Kenny Adeleke, 837 (2001-04)
6.) ROKAS GUSTYS, 833 (2014-present)
7.) Barry White, 811 (1966-69)
8.) Roberto Gittens, 809 (1997-2001)
THINGS YOU CAN SHOUT ON TWITTER IF CALLS GO DO NOT GO HOFSTRA’S WAY
You should still be known as Towson State bias! (c’mon folks know your Hofstra history)
Last real ECC champ bias! (Towson State won the final ECC title before the league lost its automatic bid in 1991 as well as the final title in 1992 before the league disbanded)
Kix bias! (The hair metal band Kix is from Baltimore)
Cal Ripken Jr. bias! (c’mon folks)
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