The Hofstra University women’s basketball team lost their fifth consecutive game at Towson University on Friday, Jan. 23, when a 3-point shot from Tilda Sjökvist with 0.9 seconds on the game clock gave the Tigers a late 58-55 victory.
With the loss, the Pride fell to 3-15 on the season with a 1-6 record against Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) foes, staying at the bottom of the 13-team conference standings. The Tigers made their way into the CAA’s top four teams with the victory, holding an 11-7 overall record and a 4-2 in-conference record.
Since becoming a regular member of Hofstra head coach Danielle Santos Atkinson’s starting rotation this season, Alarice Gooden has become the breakout point guard the Pride has been searching for, accumulating 17 points against the Tigers. Sandra Magolico trailed Gooden with 15 points and led the Pride’s defense with 12 total rebounds, eight of which were defensive, for the third double-double of her Hofstra career.
Gooden and Magolico were the Pride’s only double-digit scorers against the Tigers.
Both teams tied at the end of both the first and second quarters, but Hofstra had a slight edge over Towson in the third quarter, outscoring the Tigers 17-14 in the first 10 minutes back from the halftime break. Within this 10-minute period, Hofstra’s offense went 7-16 from the court, 1-3 behind the arc – courtesy of Micaela Carter – and scored a pair of free throws. The Pride ended 30 minutes of play with a narrow 43-40 lead.
Gooden began the fourth quarter with a jumper to give the Pride a five-point lead, but Towson’s offense began to wake up and show dominance. They did not allow Hofstra to score for almost three minutes of the final stretch and, at times, held Hofstra to just a one-point lead. Magolico and Gooden made the last points of the game with 1:41 left on the clock. Magolico scored in two of Hofstra’s 28 points in the paint.
With 50 seconds left, India Johnston tied the game with a layup. With less than a second left, after the Pride’s last of 11 turnovers, a common struggle for the team, and a Towson timeout, Sjökvist made the three-pointer that withheld Hofstra from an early-afternoon victory.
Johnston scored 24 points in 35 minutes off Towson’s bench as the top scorer in the Hofstra-Towson series finale. Viki Matulevicius came off the bench for the Tigers and scored 10 points, led with eight rebounds and made four assists.
Noticeable in both matches between the Pride and the Tigers this season was how close they both were. When Hofstra hosted Towson on Friday, Jan. 9, they only lost 47-46, and they were also tied at the halfway mark at 21 a piece, and they had a three-point lead entering the fourth quarter, In that game, Thalia Shepard hit a go-ahead free throw with 11 seconds left on the game clock, sending the Tigers to their late victory.
Hofstra is set to host William & Mary on Monday, Jan. 26. Tipoff is set for 2 p.m. at the David S. Mack Sports and Exhibition Complex.
