By Kyle Kandetzki – Sports Editor
On a Pride team that certainly has a knack for close wins and losses, a blowout victory was welcome for the team and fans alike.
The Hofstra Pride men’s basketball team traveled to Philadelphia on Sunday for their final regular season matchup with the Drexel Dragons. The Pride came out swinging, and defeated a team on a six-game win streak easily, 81-57. The win puts the Pride at 8-6 in-conference, and just two games back of first place. In a change of pace, Hofstra played most of the game in the paint, lead by center Moussa Kone, who made all ten of his shots, scoring a career-high 23 points.
“We talked about having more pop on offense [after losing to Northeastern],” said head coach Joe Mihalich. “And this is a really unselfish team, when we share the ball, share the game, we’re a pretty good team.”
The first half belonged to forward Malik Nichols, in his first big performance since being switched to the bench in favor of senior Jamall Robinson. Nichols and Kone combined to tear up a weak Dragon frontcourt, as Hofstra scored their first thirteen consecutive field goals in the paint.
After Drexel hung tight with the Pride over the first six minutes of the half at a 9-9 score, Hofstra broke off a 17-3 run to give them a 26-12 lead with 7:30 left in the half. Nichols scored 13 of his 15 points in the period over the first 12:30 of the half, including some emphatic dunks that this team has seen few of this season.
Hofstra only tried five three-pointers in the period, and only landed one, by Juan’ya Green nearly fifteen minutes into the half, the team’s first field goal outside of the paint. Ameen Tanksley quickly chipped in two scores, followed by Nichols’ seventh of the period to give the Pride 41 points at halftime, on an impressive 63% shooting.
“I told myself early on that I wanted to get everyone into the game first,” said Green, referencing the heavy emphasis on getting the ball inside.
On the other end, the Dragons went cold for extended periods of time, and only landed nine field goals in the first 20 minutes. Six of them were hit by forward Tavon Allen, who was the only player to score more than four points at the break (he had 14), as Hofstra held a big 41-25 lead.
It only took 13 seconds into the second half to see that Hofstra would be doing more of the same, as Kone easily brought the ball inside for his fifth field goal of the evening. The 6’8” senior then added to his highlight reel with one of a handful of dunks just two minutes later.
Hofstra showed their ability to be a dual threat from either part of the court, and reverted their old ways temporarily to open up their first 20-point lead of the day. Robinson and Green landed three three-pointers between them for the next four Pride scores, and Hofstra was up 56-36 with 14:03 to go.
Over the next four-minute period, Kone came back to show just how unstoppable he was in this game. The Bronx native picked up a block, threw down a dunk, was subbed out for two minutes, came back in and dunked once more, and quickly followed it with an easy layup, making the score 69-47 going into the final six minutes of the game.
The Pride would cruise to the finish from here, with some faces whom had quieter days contributing the final points (Dion Nesmith and Tanksley, who had 9 apiece). The day wouldn’t finish, though, without a final Kone score, a tip-in to not only extend his career-high, but also give him his tenth field goal on ten attempts.
As the game hit its final moments, the Dragon stat sheet showed little to be impressed about. Potential CAA Player of the Year nominee Damion Lee scored 15, but on 3-of-9 shooting, while leading scorer Tavon Allen had 20, but was a poor 2-for-10 from beyond the arc. Drexel finished the afternoon at 33% shooting.
The 81-57 dominance by Hofstra might be the type of win that this on-again, off-again squad needs heading into the final stretch of the season. Kone’s 23-point, six-board night was aided by Nichols scoring 15, all in the first half, and Green adding 13 along with six assists. The Pride finished the day scoring 58 points in the paint, and an overall 63% from the field.
“We got them at a good time,” said Mihalich. “It’s hard to keep that going, winning six games in a row.”
Next up for Hofstra is a road matchup against the Towson Tigers on Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. The Pride will be looking to avenge a rough 86-72 loss to them a few games ago, and carry momentum into their upcoming home game on Sunday against CAA-leading William & Mary.
