On Sunday, March 10, the second-seeded Drexel Men’s Basketball Team competed in their first game of the Jersey Mike’s CAA Men’s Basketball Tournament against the 7th-seeded Stony Brook Seawolves at the Entertainment and Sports Arena in Washington DC. The Coastal Atlantic Association Tournament, held from March 8 to March 12 and hosted fourteen different teams from across the nation. Due to their performance in conference play, finishing the regular season with a 13-5 CAA record, Drexel earned a double bye which meant their first game was in the quarterfinals.
Before the game, CAA awards were presented to players. Sophomore Justin Moore was named a Third Team All-CAA Selection and senior Amari Willams was named the CAA’s Defensive Player of the Year for a record setting third time in a row, as well as being named the CAA’s First Team for the second straight season in a vote by the league’s coaches.
Drexel’s starting lineup consisted of Lucas Monroe, Justin Moore, Luke House, Mate Okros and Amari Williams. While the game got off to a slow start, the Dragons were able to take the lead ahead of Stony Brook. By halftime, the score was Drexel 36 to Stony Brook’s 28. House led in scoring with nine points, followed by Monroe with seven points.
In the second half, Drexel continued to stay ahead of the Seawolves, with 12:20 on the clock, Drexel led 51-44. The turning point of the game came when Amari Williams went down with an injury with just over 17 minutes left in the contest.
After securing a defensive rebound, Williams attempted to break the Dragons out of their half of the court when Stony Brook’s Andre Snoddy attempted to draw a charge on the big man, tangling his leg between Williams’ which sent the British big man to the ground in visible pain.
Stony Brook pushed with their offense on the backs of their two big men, Chris Maidoh and Keenan Fitzmorris, against a suddenly undersized Drexel squad. And so, with two minutes left, Drexel was up by one, with a score of 66-65. With ten seconds left, Stony Brook scored, tying the game 71-71, and sending the game into overtime.
The Dragons and the Seawolves remained neck to neck in overtime. With 20 seconds left in overtime, the score was 80-78 Drexel. Stony Brook managed to score, tying the score 80-80, and sending the game into a second overtime. The second overtime remained close, but Stony Brook managed to just barely stay ahead of Drexel.
With a few last-minute shots, Stony Brook won the game by a score of 91-88 and advanced to the semifinals of the tournament where they faced Hofstra and won by a score of 63-59, ultimately ending their season in the conference finals at the hands of College of Charleston.
Luke House led the team in points, scoring a total of 28 points, which is a career-high. He made seven out of his eleven 3-point attempts, and his 28 points tied for the second most ever in a CAA postseason game by a Drexel player. He was followed by Lucas Monroe who scored 13 points and Garfield Turner who scored 12 points, and also had a team-high of nine rebounds.
As the season ends, Drexel’s Men Basketball will face some big changes. This season, they are graduating seven out of their seventeen players, which includes four seniors and three graduate students. These players are Lamar Oden Jr, Dean Wang, Hubert Bayigamba, Amari Williams, Lucas Monroe, Luke House and Mate Okros. Despite this, Drexel has big things in store for their men’s basketball team, including the recruitment of Clemson Edomwonyin and Josh Reed, both of whom are expected to make big impacts for the future of the team.