The Colonial Athletic Association men’s basketball tournament at the Richmond Coliseum, Mar. 7-10.

The Hub will be providing coverage of the 2008 CAA championship tournament through Monday night’s finale. This space will be updated/edited regularly, so check back often.

MONDAY’S CHAMPIONSHIP

William & Mary (17-15) vs. George Mason (22-10) at 7 p.m. (ESPN)

At halftime, it’s Mason 27, Wm. & Mary 26.

Mason wins!

Final score: Mason 68, W&M 59.

SUNDAY’S SEMI-FINAL GAMES

5:30 p.m.: Mason (21-10) vs. UNC Wilmington (20-12).

Mason wins, 53-41.

Click here for box score.

*

3 p.m.: Wm. & Mary (16-15) vs. VCU (24-6). The game is underway.

13:51: Wm.&M 11, VCU 7

11:01: Wm&M 13-12

7:45: VCU 19, W&M 13. VCU’s Shuler has five points; Fameni has four boards. W&M’s Kisielius has 10 points.

3:59: VCU 19, W&M 16. VCU shooting 36.8 percent from the floor. W&M shooting 36.4 percent from the floor.

3:27: Fameni sits with two fouls.

2:12: VCU 24-22.

1:03: VCU 26-22 on Gwynn’s layup. He has six points.

VCU 28, W&M 22 at the end of the first half. Kisielius leads all scorers with eight points.

12:54: W&M 35, VCU 32.

11:54: W&M 37, VCU 35. W&M’s Sumner has 13 points, four rebounds. Mann has four fouls. VCU’s Sanders six points, four rebounds.

9:45: VCU 40, W&M 39.

9:10: VCU 43, W&M 39. Maynor has 13 points.

7:48: W&M 45, VCU 43. Sumner has 16 points.

6:44: W&M 50, VCU 43. Kisielius has 18 points.

6:01: W&M 51, VCU 46. Shuler has 10 points.

3:51: With VCU’s Anderson going to the free throw line for two shots, the score is still W&M 51, VCU 46.

3:19: On Maynor’s trey VCU knots the score at 51 apiece.

2:12: VCU’s ball, still 51-51.

1:06: No change in score. W&M’s ball.

0:23.2: Tied 54-54.

0:02.6: W&M 56, VCU 54, on Kisielius’ drive with Anderson defending poorly.

W&M wins, 56-54.

Click here for box score.

To sum up: W&M coach Tony Shaver (CAA Coach of the Year) compared his Tribe team to the NY Giants facing the NE Patriots in the last Super Bowl. Of the task of playing four games in four days he said fatigue may be a factor with him, but not his players.

Coach Anthony Grant said his team “kind of shot ourselves in the foot in the first half … we didn’t play our best, obviously, they had something to do with that. William & Mary is talented enough to win the [CAA} chanmpionship.”

For whatever reason, Grant didn’t use his bench — not as many minutes or men on the floor — in the same way he did during the regular season.

Wm. & Mary’s Kisielius finished with 23 points, Sumner with 19. A charge that Peter Stein took from Maynor with 2: 41 left in the second half may have been the pivotal play in the game. Coach Shaver just sat down next to me on press row, he agreed when asked if it was.

*

SATURDAY’S RESULTS

Sixth-seeded Northeastern (14-16) vs. third-seeded Mason (20-10) at 8:30 p.m. in Saturday’s fourth quarterfinal game.

Notes: No surprise, Mason is tough in postseason play, more tough than Northeastern by 63-52.

Click here for box score.

*

Seventh-seeded Delaware (14-16) vs. second-seeded UNC Wilmington (19-12) at 6 p.m. in Saturday’s third quarterfinal game.

Notes: UNC Wilmington uses it muscle and savvy to trounce Delaware, 82-59.

Click here for the box score.

*

Fifth-seeded Wm. & Mary (15-15) vs. fourth-seeded Old Dominion (17-14) at 2:30 p.m. in Saturday’s second quarterfinal game.

Notes: Six-and-a-half-point underdog Wm. & Mary wins on another late-game three-pointer and upsets ODU by a score of 63-60.

Click here for the box score.

*

Ninth-seeded Towson (13-17) vs. first-seeded VCU (23-6) at noon in Saturday’s first quarterfinal game. The game is now underway.

• After beginning with an 8-0 run, at 16:20 of the first half Towson leads VCU, 10-5.
• At 11:31, the Tigers still lead, 17-14. Towson’s Josh Thornton has 10 points.
• At 7:16, the score is stuck on 17-14. VCU’s Larry Sanders already has two blocked shots. The Rams have missed some wide open looks.
• With 3:44 remaining, Towson is still up by three, 19-16. The two teams went two seconds short seven minutes without scoring. VCU’s Jamal Shuler is one-for-seven in shooting.
• On a Maynor trey just before the buzzer, VCU takes a two-point lead into the locker room, 25-23. He is pacing the Rams offense with seven points. Sanders has six.
• To start the second half the Rams score four and the Tigers coach Pat Kennedy calls a timeout. VCU 29, Towson 22.
• Using a fierce full-court press, VCU has changed the tempo of the game. Sanders is killing Towson around the basket with dunks, stick-backs and blocks; he has 10 points and eight rebounds. VCU leads 33-22 at the 15:59 mark.
• At 11:11, VCU has gotten sloppy with the ball, but still have a lead, 36-30. Towson is already out of timeouts.
• With 7:53 left on the clock, VCU is up 38-32. Shuler has connected on just one of his 11 shots from the field.
• At 1:43, VCU stretches its lead to 11 points. Maynor has 17 points; Sanders is having a career game with 13 points, 13 rebounds and four blocks, so far.
• At 1:11, it’s 53-42, VCU.
• VCU ahead, 56-46, with 29.1 remaining.
• VCU wins. Final score: VCU 57, Towson 46.
• Click here for box score.

To sum up: While the Rams didn’t play all that well, they played hard. Towson’s flexible 1-3-1 zone bothered them most of the game. Naturally, it was rigged to focus on Maynor and Shuler. In the cavernous Coliseum neither team shot well — VCU 36.7 percent; Towson 29.8 percent. In many ways it was a typical, rather uptight No. 1 vs. No. 9 contest.

Maynor, a junior and current CAA Player of the Year, finished with 19 points and six assists. For him it was maybe a B-minus. Sanders, the freshman still finding his way, had a breakout game. He scored 14 points, with 15 boards and four blocks.

*

Links to previous related stories at the Hub:

“Maynor CAA Player of the Year” — A report on the CAA All-Star team and other awards announced on Thursday night at the league’s banquet. Click here.
“VCU men’s basketball notes” — Commentary and VCU roster information and stats. Click here.

“CAA Pre-tournament Basketball Notes” — Regular season-ending stats and summaries of all 12 teams. Click here.

“William & Mary survives” — Capsules of the second, third and fourth of Friday games.

Sophomore guard David Schneider’s three-point field goal from beyond the top of the key with 1.5 seconds to play lifted William & Mary to a 58-57 victory over Georgia State in the second opening-round game of the 2008 Aeropostale CAA Men’s Basketball Championship at the Richmond Coliseum today (Friday) … Click here for more.

“Towson to play VCU” — Capsule of the Towson win over Hofstra on Friday.

Towson sophomore guard Josh Thornton scored 22 points and junior forward Tony Durant added 20 as the ninth-seeded Tigers defeated eighth-seeded Hofstra in the opening game of the 2008 Aeropostale CAA Men’s Basketball Championship at the Richmond Coliseum: Towson 81, Hofstra 66. Click here for more.

*

Tickets (if still available): $16 per session; call (804) 262-8100, or at the box office.