Before the start of CAA conference play, the two best guards in the CAA were Hofstra’s Antoine Agudio and VCU’s Eric Maynor. There was no other reason to think otherwise, since both were all CAA first team members last season and both had started off to great starts this season with Agudio at one time being the second leading scorer in the country after several games. But after the last few games in CAA play and watching last night’s Hofstra-VCU game live, the two best guards in the CAA were on the court, but both played for VCU. The Rams (14-4, 7-1 CAA) led by guards Jamal Shuler and Maynor (17 points) pulled away from Hofstra (4-13, 2-6 CAA) in the second half, winning 82-65.
Shuler scored 23 points and again shutdown Antoine Agudio, who was held to 10 points on 3 of 8 shooting from the field. This was the second meeting between Hofstra and VCU, and in the first meeting, Shuler held Agudio to 14 points on 4 of 11 shooting from the field, including 0 of 5 from the three point arc. Agudio prior to that game had hit a three pointer in 48 straight games.
Shuler has played impressively in his last four games. Though he only scored 10 points in that game against Hofstra, he also had 8 rebounds. In his last three games, Shuler had 21 points and 6 rebounds vs. Delaware, 26 points, 11 rebounds and 3 steals vs Old Dominion and the 23 points last night vs. Hofstra. He is an extremely tough defender, very quick and very strong.
One of the more interesting points was that Hofstra shot 53 percent from the field last night (which included 1 of 9 from three). Usually that leads to a notch in the win column. However, there were several telling stats in last night’s loss;.
1) VCU had 65 field goal attempts as opposed to Hofstra’s 47 field goal attempts. VCU had 15 more field goal attempts than Hofstra in the first half alone (though they only had a 6 point halftime lead). The difference, the Rams outrebounded the Pride 37 to 26, which included 19 offensive rebounds for VCU to Hofstra’s 8. This led to VCU having 19 second chance points to Hofstra’s 7.
2) Hofstra had 22 turnovers to VCU’s 16. What the stats don’t tell was that if you watched the game last night, Hofstra had an extremely difficult time inbounding the ball vs. the VCU press. Agudio and point guard Greg Johnson combined had as many turnovers as assists (8). Also, again Johnson was very careless handling the ball as he has for most of the season. He dribbled
too much breaking the press and left himself in awkward situations as a result.
3) VCU’s bench play was outstanding. The VCU bench outscored Hofstra 24-7, which happened to be the difference in the score last night. Lance Kearse, the cousin of the NFL’s Javon Kearse, scored 17 points off the bench for the Rams. Eight Rams players played 11 minutes or more last night as opposed to only six for Hofstra.
Finally, I want to point out that since the earlier game at VCU, Agudio has only made two of his last seventeen three pointers in the last 3 games and been held under his season scoring average of 22 (19,6, and 10 respectively). In fact his scoring average has dropped from a season high of over 27 points a game in the last several games to now 22 points per game. And you can see the frustration in Agudio’s face as teams are often double teaming him off screens and picks. Coach Tom Pecora needs to find some way to free up his star guard. However, this has allowed players such as Charles Jenkins and Darren Townes to come into their own. Townes and Jenkins combined for 34 points on 14 of 22 shooting from the field. This hopefully should start freeing up Agudio more as the season progresses.
Hofstra at one time had a 12-4 lead early first half but VCU outscored them 76-53 the rest of the away. Hofstra plays at Northeastern on Saturday while VCU is home to Drexel.
In other action, George Mason(14-5, 6-2 CAA) absolutely demolished Old Dominion (9-11, 4-4 CAA) 86-53 as Folarin Campbell had 25 points for the Patriots. Delaware (9-9, 6-2 CAA), on a last second bucket by Marc Egerson defeated James Madison (10-8,3-5 CAA) 66-65. William and Mary (10-8,6-2 CAA) held on in overtime to win at Drexel (8-10,2-6 CAA) 73-72 as Laimus Kisielius had 20 points for the Tribe. C.C. Williams hit a bank shot with 3.5 seconds to lift Towson (7-11,3-5 CAA) to a 58-57 win over Georgia State(4-14, 1-7 CAA). This was the Panthers fourth loss in conference by two points or less. Finally, UNC Wilmington(12-8, 5-3 CAA) beat Northeastern 77-69 as T.J. Carter and Daniel Fountain each had 17 for the Seahawks.
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