MBB Game 14 Campbell, Dec. 29 (Mon) 7 PM

[EvanJ]

https://defiantlydutch.blogspot.com/202 ... pbell.html is Jerry Beach's "I'll Be Quirky: Campbell." The 74-66 win over Quinnipiac was a unicorn score, meaning the first time that we won by that score, and it is surprising because 74-66 seems like a normal score.

We are starting Edmead, Davis, Plotnikov, DeCady, and Onuetu. Campbell is starting Tasos Cook (guard, 5.8 points), Jeremiah Johnson (guard, 12.5 points), Cam Gregory (guard, 6.5 points, 3.0 assists), D.J. Smith (guard, 18.5 points), and Muneer Nelson (forward, 5.8 points, 4.2 rebounds which leads tonight's starters). Dovydas Butka (forward, 15.8 points, 8.5 rebounds) and Chris Fields Jr. (forward, 12.3 points, 9.0 rebounds) are not starting. Fields has come off the bench in a majority of the games. Butka had started every game. Fields and Butka are one of four pairs of teammates to have at least 8 games and average at least 8.5 rebounds, and they are the only mid-major teammates to do that. Florida, North Carolina, and Purdue have two players doing that.

https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/sc ... /2026.html has Campbell's statistics.

https://www.flohoops.com/live/214577 has video.

W&M scored with 8:42 left to lead Towson by 19. Towson got within 6, but W&M won 84-70. Towson did the difficult thing of having the top three scorers in a loss by 14.

Edit: Campbell changed their lineup. Butka started, so he still started every game, and Muneer Nelson did not start. DeCady made a free throw, and we lead 1-0.

[Pbdutch]

This is probably the biggest line movement I’ve seen on a Hofstra game in a while. We started out as 10.5 point favorites and right before game time it went to 6.5. That’s some serious movement on a mid major bball game.

[dutchPride86]

We'll we've already given up 4 offensive rebounds and have 4 turnovers in first 5 minutes, so another lousy start.

Let's hope thats all it is and this spread movement isnt a sign of anything nefarious. This day age never know

Edit at 8:44 of 1st half - Its no longer a lousy start to say the least. Lol

[EvanJ]

We trailed 11-7. We went on an 18-2 run to go up 31-16. Campbell got within 8 at 35-27, but we are on a 14-4 run to lead 49-31 at halftime. DeCady leads all scorers with 14. Davis scored 12, and leads all players with 5 assists and 5 turnovers. Edmead made a three to end the half to give him 11 points, which is tied with Campbell's leader, Jeremiah Johnson. Roberts scored 8. Sunday made his only shot to score 2, and led us with 4 rebounds, including an offensive rebound followed by an assist. Dovydas Butka has 6 points, 6 rebounds to lead all players, and 3 assists. Campbell's Chris Fields Jr. is injured.

At halftime, they interviewed our former forward Nelson Boachie-Yiadom.

Northeastern did something hard, which is to be losing at halftime while shooting threes 9-12. Elon leads 46-43. At one point Northeastern was shooting threes 8-10 while down 7.

Drexel leads 34-28 at halftime. Colby Duggan, who is in his first game for Charleston after transferring from Campbell, scored 10. Jlynn Counter scored 13, and Charleston's players outside their top two combined to score 5.

Stony Brook led by 7, and leads 34-33 at Hampton.

In the only game that has not reached halftime, NC A&T leads 45-40 hosting UNCW. Both teams made half of their threes.

[Wags]

Great balance at the top - Davis, Edmead, DeCady with 14 each. Currently matching Campbell. 62-42, Pride after leading by as much as 60-37.

[EvanJ]

We lead 65-43, but we committed our sixth foul with 11:53 left, so we cannot commit any more defensive fouls that do not give free throws. Campbell has 5 free throws made in the second half, which is more than we made in the game. We will probably win, but it will not be fun watching if Campbell makes 10 or more free throws in the last 11:53.

[dutchPride86]

Well could have and probably should have won this game by 30, so Im sure Speedy will still have plenty to coach them up on this week.

That last 15 min of first half effort level can win this league. 2nd half honestly felt like Hofstra was toying with them dont know what that was. Thought Campbell would have put up more of a fight

But great to see guys like DeCady and Roberts continue to develop. And I think CAA player of the year is firmly Cruz's award to lose

Also should commend the Hofstra sports media folks for cleaning up the issues with the stream. Smooth watch on Flo tonight

[Pbdutch]

I don’t know if I’m being unfair here, but this is what I mean. We were up 60-37 at one point. Why didn’t we continue to put the hammer down and try blowing them out by 40. We ended up winning by 14, but it’s like they let up or something like that. That’s on speedy for not telling the guys to step on their throats until the very end. This should’ve been a blowout

[Wags]

I don’t know if I’m being unfair here, but this is what I mean. We were up 60-37 at one point. Why didn’t we continue to put the hammer down and try blowing them out by 40. We ended up winning by 14, but it’s like they let up or something like that. That’s on speedy for not telling the guys to step on their throats until the very end. This should’ve been a blowout

Speedy mentioned this after the game, that he thought they may have taken their foot off the gas pedal a bit.

But that's also just basketball. Things almost always regress to the mean when they are outliers. When they were up 18 at the half, they were shooting 65.5%, When they were up 23, they were still shooting 60%. They ended up 54.4% overall and 42.9% in the second half. Teams that hot (at 60+%) will almost always cool off, and as they do, they won't keep growing an already sizable lead. That lead will just level off. I think they can be happy with tonight's performance on the whole. It's not like they ever let Campbell back in the game at all. Once it got to 23, it never got lower than the final margin of 14, and they were still up 18 with :45 left.

[EvanJ]

We won 86-72, which tied W&M's 84-70 win hosting Towson for the largest in the CAA. Charleston trailed 17-3 hosting Drexel, but Charleston came back to win 72-63. UNCW won 87-78 at NC A&T. Elon won 103-91 hosting Northeastern. Northeastern made 14 of 21 threes, but they lost because Kacper Klaczek and Chandler Cuthrell scored 28 to become the first CAA teammates with at least 28 since monmouth Abdi Bashir Jr. and Madison Durr on January 30, 2025. Tareq Coburn and Jalen Ray were our last teammates to score at least 28. Hampton won 62-59 hosting Stony Brook. With 4.7 seconds left and Stony Brook at the basket they wanted to score in, Stony Brook lost the ball out of bounds. It was called out of bounds off of Hampton, and overturned by replay. Hampton had the rare turnover of the inbounder moving when he was not allowed to. Stony Brook attempted a three to tie, and missed.

Now to our game. Davis had 22 points, 5 rebounds, 7 assists to lead all players, 1 steal, 1 block, 6 turnovers, and 3 fouls. Edmead scored 16, but had 2 assists and 4 turnovers. DeCady tied his career-high with 15, and missed two free throws with a chance at a new career-high. We were +22 in his 29 minutes. Roberts scored 14. Sunday had 8 points without missing and 6 rebounds. Onuetu scored 6 with his only misses being 2 free throws, and led all players with 12 rebounds. Patterson scored 3 that was a three. Plotnikov shot 1-7 to score 2, but had 5 rebounds. Reaves and Tsynkevich entered with 1:04 left, and all of their statistics were zeroes. Our bench played 51 minutes. Davis played the whole game except for the last 1:04. Jeremiah Johnson led all players with 25 points, but he did not do much else with 1 rebound and 0 assists. Dovydas Butka had the only double-double with 13 points and 12 rebounds, and he led them with 4 assists. Tasos Cook had 12 points and 3 assists. Their three bench players totaled 22 minutes, and all of their starters played at least 32 minutes. They have one day of rest before playing at Monmouth, who got to rest today.

We did well in most statistics. Turnovers, free throw percentage, and Campbell's shooting two-pointers were our weaknesses. Campbell had more points off turnovers 16 to 7. We had more rebounds 42 to 27, and most of the difference was from defensive rebounds. Campbell missed more shots, and a team that misses more shots is likely to have fewer rebounds. No forward on either team blocked a shot. Davis and Roberts had 1 block.

Here are the Analytics leaders. In efficiency, Davis led with with 25, Butka was second with 20, and Johnson was third with 19, so the losing team had two of the top three. In game score, Johnson led with 19.6, Davis was second with 18.4, and Roberts was third with 13.5. In net points, Davis led with +11.0, Roberts was second with +8.7, and Johnson was third with +6.9. We added up to +17.7, and Campbell added up to -8.4. Net points is normally negative for all players combined, but it was +9.3 this time.

https://gohofstra.com/sports/mens-baske ... core/13840 is the box score. The attendance was 1,935.

https://gohofstra.com/news/2025/12/30/m ... aight.aspx is our recap titled "Domination; Pride Rolls In CAA Opener To Win Fifth Straight."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CDLwNNnOfU is highlights.

[Wags]

1,935 in attendance, which incidentally matches the year (1935) Hofstra started, as noted on the Hofstra banner giveaway for the prior game, against Quinnipiac. Good Omen?

[HUSID74]

In my opinion attendance was pretty good for a game in the middle of the winter break, etc.
W played a superior first half after the first few minutes where Cruz was a little jumpy...we settled later and played an excellent game.
In the second half it looked like Speedy was telling the team to slow down and use up the clock. Naturally it took away some of our momentum.
The kid ROBERTS was AMAZING! Comes in and BANG hits a few shots...liket the energizer bunny!
And kudos to DeCady for playing Cruz in the opening moments with his scoring.
Also of note is the play of our two headed center. They COMBINED for 14 points and 18 rebounds last night!
Nice to see all the reserves get a minute or two at the end.

[Cards]

DeCady's first half was the best I've ever seen him play! Aggressive, strong to the hoop, wanting the ball - and finally using his size and athleticism in a controlled manner. Still not a good shooter, but certainly better than he has been. Needs to work on FTs (unfortunately, he's not the only one who needs work in that area). He certainly gives us more size and gives Speedy an option to go with more of a two forward/three guard offense rather than the "four guard" offense we have used since the beginning of time.

[dutchPride86]

Also of note is the play of our two headed center. They COMBINED for 14 points and 18 rebounds last night!

Agreed Victory and Sunday continue to do a really nice job. Sunday has deservedly taken a lot of criticism here over the years, but he really has developed into a dependable backup center. Hes not even playing a full 2 min more a game than last yr, so look at some of the improvements in his stats in essentially the same amount of playing time:

Pts: 3.6 - 5.1
Reb: 4 - 5.4
Off rebs: 1.2 -1.9
Fg%: 61.6 - 72.1
FT%: 58.3-71.4
Ast: 0.5 - 0.9

Hes also now gone 3 straight games without a turnover.

Im not saying hes some amazing player now or deserves more minutes, but really nice to see him finally grow into a genuine serviceable role on this team

[Jojogunne]

Great turnout from this board last night. Met a number of longtime posters.

I also thought the Dance Team was outstanding (seriously). Very athletic, like gymnists.

[Wags]

https://www.midmajormadness.com/general ... -statement

[triplec2195]

https://www.midmajormadness.com/general ... -statement

Nice article Wags a good way to start CAA play.

[HUSID74]

Great turnout from this board last night. Met a number of longtime posters.

I also thought the Dance Team was outstanding (seriously). Very athletic, like gymnists.

JoJo on that note, great to finally meet you!

[triplec2195]

Great turnout from this board last night. Met a number of longtime posters.

I also thought the Dance Team was outstanding (seriously). Very athletic, like gymnists.

JoJo on that note, great to finally meet you!

I find it hard to believe the two of you never met each other but crazy things can happen. I saw you guys talking in the Pride Lounge thought it was business as usual but should of had Stu there as well. Lol

[Jojogunne]

Great turnout from this board last night. Met a number of longtime posters.

I also thought the Dance Team was outstanding (seriously). Very athletic, like gymnists.

JoJo on that note, great to finally meet you!

Same here, SID!