By By Ed Morrone

LUCK OF THE IRISH

After its season-opening victory over Florida International University, the Pride traveled to South Bend, Ind., to take on Big East power Notre Dame. Similar to last year’s contest at Syracuse, the Pride was able to stick with the Irish on its home court, taking a 33-29 lead into halftime. However, the Blue & Gold self-destructed in the second half, scoring just 17 points en route to a 69-50 loss.

Loren Stokes had 13 points and 7 rebounds while Adrian Uter notched his first double double of the year with 10 points and 12 rebounds, but it wasn’t nearly enough to slow down the Irish’s torrid shooting. Notre Dame shot 46.2 percent for the game, including a 10-for-22 (45.5 percent) mark. Sharpshooter Colin Falls led the Irish with 19 points (5-for-12 from beyond the arc) and Chris Quinn added 16.

“They’re a very big, physical team,” Uter said. “[Power forward Torin] Francis can play and they have some guys who can shoot.”

PRIDE SIGN THREE

The Pride signed three high school players to national letters of intent during the fall signing period, according to Pecora.

The three players include 6-7 power forward Mantas Leonavicius of Lithuania, 6-2 guard Sal Patricio of Queens and 6-10 forward Greg Washington of Islip, N.Y.

The Pride will lose four seniors after this season and still has a scholarship available to use for the spring signing period.

“We are extremely excited about the addition of these three fine young men to our program,” Pecora said in a University press release. “We expect all of them will have a tremendous impact at the college level, and our entire coaching staff looks forward to having these three young men join the Hofstra family.”

CAA’S TO BEGIN

The Pride will open its conference schedule on Saturday at home against Delaware before heading to Richmond to take on Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). The Pride will then play four non-conference games before resuming CAA play in January.