The Hofstra University women’s basketball team won its biggest game of the year, defeating Towson University in the second round of the Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) Women’s Basketball Tournament 72-71 on Thursday, March 12. The Pride stunned the crowd with a game-winning 3-pointer to seal the victory.
“I’m just so proud of this team – so many emotions for what they just went out there and did,” said Hofstra head coach Danielle Santos Atkinson. “We’ve had a lot of adversity this season, and I had a team that could’ve quit over and over and over again, and they didn’t. They got stronger, they got more connected, they continued to fight, and we knew if we just stuck together and continued that come March – come CAA Tournament – we would be ready.”
Hofstra’s past matchups against Towson earlier this season were gritty, low-scoring games that just slipped away towards the end. Early on, it looked to be steering that direction once again with the Pride getting four steals in the first three minutes of the game and holding the Tigers to just two points in five minutes. Right when Towson scored its third and fourth points, both offenses broke loose; the Pride shot its most field goal attempts against a Division I opponent this season with 68. Hofstra kept its lead to the end of the first behind a couple of jumpers from Emma Von Essen and went up 17-12 with a Chloe Sterling layup to beat the buzzer.
Towson regained the lead to end the first half, shooting 8-14 from the field in the second quarter. With Towson’s two highest scorers, Thalia Shepard and India Johnston, combining for just 11 points, the Tigers’ Semaya Turner led the charge for them with nine. Hofstra opened up the third quarter with a run behind Alarice Gooden’s opening possession 3-pointer and two straight from Micaela Carter to follow. Hofstra ended the third quarter on an 11-4 run to take the 49-47 lead.
The fourth quarter was all Johnston. Coming into the final 10 minutes, Johnston was just 1-3 from 3-point range with seven points. With just over one minute remaining, she was 4-6 from 3-point range with 21 points – an unreal level of shot making. She hit a step back 3-pointer and an and-one floater on the very next possession, which put Towson up four with a minute to go. With Towson being just over an hour away, the crowd was buzzing for the Tigers as if the game was held in SECU Arena.
Sterling went 2-2 from the line to cut the lead to two, and with a great at the rim contest from Gooden against the 6 foot 3 inch Hannah Dereje, the Pride were down 71-69 with 19.1 seconds to go and had possession. Von Essen broke Masyn Marchbanks’ ankles on a step back jumper and knocked down the 3-pointer, giving Hofstra a 72-71 lead with 2.6 seconds remaining. Kayla Morris’ game-tying jumper rimmed out, silencing the crowd as the Pride moved on to the quarterfinals.
“My teammates and my coaches just had confidence in me; they drew [the play] up for me, and I was like ‘Now I gotta hit this shot,’” Von Essen said. “This is the best feeling in the world for me, I’m never gonna feel this as a senior again.”
The shot is reminiscent of Hofstra men’s basketball guard Preston Edmead’s game-winning 3-pointer just days ago. Both Long Island natives knocked Towson out of their respective CAA Tournament.
So many players stepped up for the Pride when needed most. Von Essen ended with her most field goals in a game this season, with six, finishing with 14 points. Sterling led the team in scoring with 17 and tagged along a pair of clutch free throws. Carter shot 5-7 from the field and 3-4 from beyond the arc, scoring 10 of her 13 points in the second half. Along with Gooden’s clutch defensive stop, she finished with 12 points and a pair of 3-pointers.
Going into halftime, Hofstra had totaled six turnovers and just two assists. They were the bottom half in the CAA in assists and, top half in turnovers despite winning the turnover battle in practically every game in the latter half of the season; this wasn’t something to highlight. Something clicked in that second half, though, as the Pride would tack on 11 assists with just two turnovers in the final 20.
“There’s not a scenario that we have not faced this season,” Santos said. “To be able to have these guys step up and get it done just means so much.”
Hofstra moved forward to take on the No. 2 seed Campbell University on Friday, March 13, at 6 p.m. The victorious team faced the winner of Drexel University and Elon University’s matchup.
