Deep Towson Overcomes Benimon Foul Trouble to Down Hofstra

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. -- Just as he’s done all season long, Jerrelle Benimon led the Towson Tigers in scoring and rebounding on Saturday. But it’s what Benimon’s teammates did without him which led second-place Towson (20-9, 11-3 in the Colonial Athletic Association) to an 83-77 victory over the pesky, eighth-place Hofstra Pride (8-21, 4-10 CAA) at the Mack Sports Complex.

Benimon entered the game as the Towson’s leading scorer (18.4 points per game) and rebounder (11.6 rebounds per game), while ranking fifth and first in the CAA in those categories, respectively, and leading the nation with 18 double-doubles.

Against Hofstra, Benimon, a senior forward transfer from Georgetown, added to that production with team-highs of 22 points and six rebounds. But after scoring 17 first-half points, he committed his fourth personal foul was benched with the score tied, 43-43, and 13:19 left.

By the time he returned, almost 10 minutes later, the Tigers were up, 67-54, and although the Pride got within five points in the final minute, a layup and three free throws by Benimon in the final 1:34 helped give the CAA preseason favorites just their second 20-win season in Division I and first in two decades.

Not bad for a program that lost a Division I-record 41 straight games while becoming the first team to finish a season winless in CAA play just two years ago.

Head coach Joe Mihalich -- whose team lost by a very similar score (81-77) on the same floor to first-place Delaware in Hofstra’s previous game -- said of Benimon and Towson, “As good as he is, [and] he’s terrific, it’s not a one-man team… we may have just lost to the team that’s going to win it all [in the CAA tournament]. Everybody’s got to figure it’s them and Delaware [as the tournament favorites]. ”

Making his first five shots to guide Towson to a 23-16 lead, after 10:32, Benimon finished the opening half 6-for-7 while the rest of the Tigers went just 4-for-16.

Yet with Benimon playing just nine minutes and shooting just 1-for-3 after halftime, his teammates shot 52.2 percent (12-for-23) following the break. And six different Tigers scored more in the second half than they did in the first, led by Towson’s senior-laden backcourt, with guards Rafriel Guthrie scoring 15 of his 16 points in the second half and Mike Burwell adding eight of his 15 points after intermission.

“I thought when they had to get a little tougher, they did, and they did it without Benimon,” Mihalich said. ”Him not being on the floor kind of pushed their other guys to do some things they don’t normally do, and they responded.”

Still, it wasn’t until Guthrie caught fire after a bad start, that the Tigers finally took control. Guthrie, who started just 1-for-9, made his last three shots while scoring eight straight Towson points, to turn a 61-53 Tigers edge, with 5:35 left, into the game’s largest lead, 69-54, with 3:11 remaining.

  

“Guthrie’s really playing well,” Mihalich said. “He had three blow-by’s, made some foul shots… they made winning plays and we didn’t… we don’t have a lot of room for error.”

The Pride’s Zeke Upshaw, a graduate guard, did all he could to keep Hofstra close by scoring 23 of his game-high 33 points in the second half, while finishing 7-for-13 after a dismal 2-for-8 start.

While Upshaw struggled early, the Pride took a 10-9 lead as the game started with six lead changes and one tie over the first 3:53, before the Tigers went on a 12-4 run.

Graduate guard Dion Nesmith scored 11 points while making his first four shots to keep Hofstra within 23-21, but he scored just three points on 1-for-6 shooting thereafter.

Considering Towson went 12-for-15 from the foul line while the Pride failed to attempt a free throw in the first half, Hofstra wasn’t in bad shape to be down just 35-29 at halftime.

Even with Benimon still on the floor, the Pride started the second half well, and took its first lead since 12-10, when sophomore forward Jordan Allen (12 points) made a free throw to put Hofstra up, 44-43, with 12:55 to go (24 seconds after Benimon left the game).

However, two free throws by reserve freshman forward John Davis (six points) on the next trip regained the lead for the Tigers, for good, 45-44.

Improving its shooting from 42.8 percent (12-for-28) in the first half to 57.7 percent (15-for-26) in the second half, while going 17-for-21 from the foul line (including 12-for-12 by Upshaw) in the frame, wasn’t enough for Hofstra, which was outscored 13-0 off the bench.

“I just thought we were taking what they were giving us in the first half but we still felt like we needed to go to the basket more in the second half, so we tried to do that,” Upshaw said, while admitting that coming up just short again ”was frustrating.”

After Guthrie gave Towson its comfortable lead, Hofstra fought back with a 19-9 run, and closed to within 78-73, on a 3-pointer by Upshaw with 49.1 seconds left.

Two missed free throws by Burwell left the door open, with the Tigers ahead, 80-75, but Upshaw and Nesmith each missed layups on the ensuing possession, before Benimon made three of four free throws over the next 12 seconds, to extend the lead to 83-75, with 10.4 seconds remaining.

Despite suffering a third consecutive loss and losing for the eighth time in nine games, Mihalich was pleased with the Pride’s effort, and warned that Hofstra could be a dangerous low seed in the CAA tournament in Baltimore March 7-10.

“These guys are great,” he said. “They just won’t stop playing for me. I’m so proud of them… we’re down [15], I’m sure most people would be thinking, ‘Let’s just hope this doesn’t get embarrassing,’ and the next thing you know, we’re down five, with the ball, and Dion’s driving the baseline. It’s just a great bunch of guys. They just won’t stop fighting… we deserve to get one of these, but nobody’s going to give you one. You’ve got to earn it… but I wouldn’t want to play us down in Baltimore.”

Before that happens, the Pride still has hope of trying to avoid the first-round game between the eight and nine seeds, if it can catch James Madison, which is currently tied with Northeastern for seventh place in the CAA.

Hofstra will travel to third-place William & Mary on Wednesday night to face a team that the Pride had its biggest conference win against (by 17 points, at home, exactly a month ago), before closing the regular season at The Mack against James Madison, on March 1.

For that contest to mean something in terms of the seven seed being up for grabs, Hofstra would not only have to win at William & Mary, but James Madison would have to lose at home, to Towson, on the same night. 

Jonathan Wagner writes for the Yahoo Contributor Network, where as a Yahoo Sports contributor, he was named one of Yahoo’s Top 100 Contributors for 2013. Jonathan also covers the Knicks, Hofstra University men's basketball and the 2013 NASL champion New York Cosmos as a credentialed writer for New York Sports Day. Follow him on Twitter, @JonathanJWagner.