Washington, DC - CAA Rookie of the Year
Preston Edmead banked in a long three-pointer with three tenths of a second remaining in overtime to give third-seeded Hofstra a 68-65 victory over seventh-seeded Towson in the semifinals of the 2026 Air Force Reserve CAA Men's Basketball Championship at CareFirst Arena Monday night. Edmead finished with a team-high 22 points, with six coming in the extra period.
Hofstra advances to the CAA championship game Tuesday night at 7 p.m., where it will take on fourth-seeded Monmouth. The game will air on CBS Sports Network.
The Pride won for the sixth consecutive game and improved to 23-10. Towson ends its campaign at 19-15.
The teams played a low scoring first half with Towson holding a 28-27 lead at the break. Hofstra had a bit of control in the early going with a six-point lead. But the Tigers would take the lead, 20-18, with seven minutes to play. The lead would change hands twice in the final three minutes with Towson reclaiming the advantage with just under two minutes on the clock.
The second half saw the score reversed to send the game into overtime. Cruz Davis scored 16 points in the second 20 minutes. The Pride held a three point lead, 55-52, with 2:12 to play before the Tigers scored the final three points. Towson had the ball with 31 seconds to go and got off a contested shot from Tyler Tejada that did not reach the rim.
The Pride scored the first three points of overtime on a free throw from German Plotnikov and an alley-oop dunk from Joshua Decady. Tejada answered with a three-point play to tie the game at 58. Two free throws from Biggie Patterson put Hofstra ahead once again before Towson took a 61-60 lead on a Tejada three. But Silas Sunday put the Pride back on top and Edmead followed with a three-pointer to extend the lead to 65-61 with 1:49 to play. Towson scored consecutive baskets to tie the score at 65 with 20 seconds to go and set up the dramatic finish.
Edmead played all 45 minutes and added three rebounds and three assists. Davis finished with 18 points, five rebounds, and four assists before fouling out early in overtime. Decady also finished in double-figures with 10 points to go along with six rebounds. Sunday had a game-high 11 rebounds.
Tejada led all scorers with 29 points and added seven rebounds. Dylan Williamson added 15 points.
Notes:
-The Pride is now 24-23 all-time at the CAA Championship.
-Hofstra's finals appearance will be the Pride's fifth since joining the league in 2001-02.
-Hofstra will be looking for its fifth NCAA Tournament appearance as a Division I program and ninth all-time (four as a Division II program). The last appearance came in the 2000-01 season.
-Hofstra is 51-31 all-time versus Towson.
-The game featured nine ties and 10 lead changes.
