HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. – With five teams tied for third place, each 5-4 in conference play, and with the next four teams lurking close behind (each within two games), this year’s normally competitive Coastal Athletic Conference has already produced even more parity than usual.
However, two of the league’s perennial contenders – the UNC Wilmington Seahawks and the Charleston Cougars – have clearly separated themselves by the midpoint of CAA play.
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While Towson has been a disappointment (sitting in 10th-place, with a 4-6 conference record, after being picked to repeat as CAA regular season champions), UNCW and Charleston have both been slightly better than their already high expectations thus far.
The Seahawks (picked second) sit alone in first-place at impressive marks of 8-1 in the CAA and 19-3 overall. The only team that may be capable of catching UNCW in the CAA’s second half is second-place Charleston, which for the fourth time since conference play began this year, won by four points or less. This time, it was a road victory over the Hofstra Pride, 66-64, at the David S. Mack Sports and Exhibition Complex on Thursday night.
After winning three earlier CAA games (at Elon, and at home against Hampton and Campbell), each by four points, Charleston (14-8, 7-2 CAA) carried a weak 2-4 road record to Hofstra and were wary of the Pride, which was desperately trying to snap a four-game losing streak that immediately followed an eight-game winning streak.
“We knew what we were going to get… stray cats fighting for their lives after losing four in a row,” Charleston head coach Chris Mack said.
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Despite that concern, the Cougars were the fat cats. They turned an 11-point second-half deficit into an eight-point lead before scratching out yet another hard-fought win.
Charleston’s offense wasn’t purring early, with the Cougars starting just 3-for-16 from the floor while Hofstra began 10-for-19, and pounced to a 24-14 lead nearly 12 minutes in, before settling for a 30-23 halftime advantage.
However, as Charleston’s defense clamped down, graduate guard Jlynn Counter and redshirt junior center Christian Reeves carried the Cougars after the intermission.
Following its good start, the Pride ended the game shooting just 16-for-59 (27.1%), while Charleston held the CAA’s leading scorer, junior guard Cruz Davis (seven points), to his only single-digit scoring game of the season, more than 14 points below his season average. Overall, Davis matched the same 3-for-16 shooting the Cougars started the game with, while missing seven of his eight shots from 3-point range.
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“[Davis] missed some shots he normally makes.” Mack said. “But I thought our guys’ on-ball screen defense, when we put two on the ball, for the most part, did a great job of not letting him turn the corner. I thought our defense, really, for the almost entire game, was as good as we’re gonna play.”
But Charleston still had to find some offense in the second half.
On a night when Mack won at The Mack, it was likewise fitting that Counter (not only because of his surname but as Charleston’s leading scorer this season) provided a big response after Hofstra grabbed a game-high 40-29 lead with 16:54 remaining.
Held to just 1-for-6 first-half shooting, Counter scored 20 of his game-high 22 points while making seven of 12 shots in the second half. Meanwhile, Reeves, after missing three of his four first-half shots, went 6-for-9 in the second half to score 14 of his 16 points after halftime.
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Together, the duo equaled Hofstra’s 34 second-half points and accounted for all but nine of the Cougars’ 43 points after halftime.
Counter’s contribution was expected, but the clutch scoring from Reeves (Charleston’s seventh-leading scorer at 9.5 points per game) was a pleasant surprise, and it was greatly needed with junior transfer forward Colby Duggan struggling.
Duggan (the Cougars’ third-leading scorer, with 12.4 points per game in eight games after returning from injury) was held to a season-low two points on just 1-of-8 shooting one year and four days after scoring a game-high 23 points to help Campbell rally from a 16-point deficit, in an overtime win in, the same building.
No matter though, the 7-foor-2, 255-pound Reeves played a very effective sidekick role for Counter.
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“For three years, he had such a limited role,” Mack said of Reeves. “He hardly played at Duke [or] Clemson. A big guy like him, [he needs to] develop his confidence and understand how big he is at this level. We saw on tape that Christian had great hands. He’s very agile [and] he’s a smart kid. I think the early non-conference [schedule] helped him, but his trajectory continues to go up, and he’s played really well the last couple weeks. We need him to if we’re going to compete for the [CAA] title.”
Although Duggan had a rough night offensively, his 32 minutes were highly valuable at the opposite end of the floor.
“College kids tend to be quiet when they’re playing defense,” Mack said, before adding of Duggan, “He’s a rare breed. He’s barking out calls, and he’s positionally where he’s supposed to be, defensively. He’s a guy that came here [and who] wants to win, and he was just as happy as anybody in that locker room [tonight]. Sometimes, you get guys that care only about how they play [individually]. That’s not Colby, and that’s the sign of a team that wants to win.”
Similar to Charleston being challenged but having success, UNCW’s road to the top of the CAA thus far hasn’t been as easy at it may seem. The Seahawks survived a season-low 49-point output in a four-point home win over Hampton on Jan. 3, and in consecutive games, needed to rally from 24 down to win at Stony Brook, and then overcame a 12-point home deficit to edge Campbell by three.
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But the Cougars’ resilience and toughness, with their four narrow CAA victories (and a 6-0 record overall in games decided by four points or less), may be even greater, as evidenced most by their win at Hofstra.
Charleston not only won despite the offensive struggles of Duggan and that of the Cougars’ second-leading scorer, graduate guard Connor Hickman (12.7 points per game), who scored just eight points on 2-for-8 shooting. The Cougars led for only 7:18 compared to Hofstra leading for 29:08.
“We found a way,” Mack said. “We’ve been in those moments before… but we have a lot of talented players. It’s my job to put them in good positions. I think this is a one-off for Colby… but the good thing is, with our team, if one guy doesn’t play well, we still can win.”
Charleston very nearly blew a six-point lead in the final minute after failing to inbound the ball twice, the second time, with 4.7 seconds left. But once again, great defense bailed the Cougars out, as Davis missed a contested jumper from the left baseline and freshman guard Preston Edmead (18 points) missed a rushed jumper from the opposite baseline before the final buzzer.
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Looking ahead to the second half of CAA play, which will include two showdowns with the Seahawks (at UNCW on Feb. 9 and at Charleston on March 1 in the regular season finale), Mack is confident that more is in store for the Cougars.
“I still feel like we have a lot on the table where we can get better,” Mack said. “I don’t feel like we’ve played, where everybody’s playing well yet. I think that’s sort of 2025-26, with transfers, trying to mesh them.
“We’re halfway through. We’ve won nothing. We’ve earned nothing… I think our guys are fighting to win, and I think we’ve got some time to keep getting better.”
If that happens, it could be a very interesting battle down the stretch for CAA supremacy between the two teams that have thus far risen above the rest.
