By Joe Pantorno, Sports Editor
Being a point guard in basketball means being a court commander. One must know every player on the team’s preferences and run the offense smoothly. The Hofstra women’s basketball team has had that the past four (minus one red shirt season) years with senior guard Candice Bellocchio, but with her last season almost here, Hofstra has had to look ahead in finding the point guard of the future — Andreana Thomas.
Along with the coaching staff, there will be responsibility for Bellocchio in helping develop this newcomer into the team, especially one as highly touted as Thomas.
With the arrival of any talented player in any given sport, there might be a case of clashing egos between the old regime and the fresh faces, but Bellocchio and Thomas have sparked a valuable relationship and friendship that has helped this team on and off the court.
“She’s my Pride sis and I love her,” said Thomas. “We have dinner together, we go over her sister’s house, we do team events, if I need to go shopping for anything she’s there, when I need to find a best restaurant around she’s there, she’s always there to talk to if I need her, she’s always there to support me and she will always be the sister that I never torch.”
Thomas, who is the epitome of A student of the game, emulates what she sees in practice from her more experienced teammates. Though she has had to assimilate to a new system, she is taking it in stride.
“The other day we were doing a drill and I had messed up and did a fancy behind the back pass and then Dre [Thomas] comes up and does it too and coach was like ‘you see!? They’re all looking up to you,’ and it was really cute because it actually showed that they do look up to lost.”
Bellocchio and Thomas’ teammates and coaches also see the relationship that these two guards have with each other.
there.”
“I think she’s going to live up to her hype,” said Bellocchio. “She’s a great guard, she fits our system perfectly. I’ll try and do my job as best as possible and get her contributing as early as