By Mike Rudin – Sports Editor
An erupting crowd of Hofstra fans slowly grew quiet at the Mack as the Hofstra Pride lost 79-68 to the Northeastern Huskies for the second time this season.
The Huskies pulled out the series sweep against the Pride, primarily due to outrebounding Hofstra 33-17 on the night. A weak Hofstra defense resulted in 13 fouls on Northeastern, which they took advantage of in the second half, scoring 17-out-of-18 free throws.
“Thought we had a couple of chances there… I don’t know why, we were just talking about this [and] can’t really explain it, thought we came out kind of flat in the first half,” said head coach Joe Mihalich. “There didn’t seem to be the energy and the enthusiasm that you need to play this game. For the life of me, I couldn’t explain why.”
The Pride faithful were on their feet at the Mack Sports Complex from the start of the game, and even coach Mihalich took notice of the crowd and their enthusiasm after the game.
“Love being here and great fans. Feel so bad that we let the students down again, I mean the students were terrific. They really showed up and we laid an egg for them,” said Mihalich.
Hofstra played aggressive and up front to give the crowd an encouraging start but the strategy didn’t throw off Northeastern as the Huskies hit back-to-back baskets to start the game.
The first two minutes in and Northeastern held their 4-0 lead until Ameen Tanksley made a three to get the crowd roaring and within one in the midst of the third minute of regulation.
Defense was the main focus for both teams as the bigs from both sides of the court made blocks to keep the score low in the first nine minutes. Gustys, with a monster leap, smacked a ball away in mid-air to stop a potential layup that also electrified the crowd.
Northeastern’s Reggie Spencer retaliated with an impressive block of his own to keep the Pride off the board and maintain their 12-9 lead in the midst of the first half.
Gustys stepped up after his second block and scored for the Pride inside the paint. 23 seconds later, Northeastern made its mark to retake the lead by one point, due to a layup from Quincy Ford. Then 33 seconds later, he came right back with another score in the paint to extend Northeastern’s lead to three.
The tempo from both teams started to wind down throughout the first, as Northeastern managed to hold their lead courtesy of a few fastbreaks and their passing that set the team up for scoring opportunities.
Stahl ignited a rally with a layup after Ford missed two jumpers and pushed the lead to seven from charity stripe after Jamall Robinson fouled him.
Tanksley answered back from the free-throw line with one but Northeastern continued to roll through with five unanswered points to put the Huskies out ahead by 11 points with 2:33 left until halftime.
Hofstra resurged with a 9-2 rally before the end of the first half to cut the Huskies’ lead down to four points, 33-29, before starting the second.
Although once the second half rolled around, Hofstra lost their momentum and was outscored 7-2 in the opening 2:43 of the last period.
Hofstra went back to playing very aggressive and at times it resulted in some turnovers or lost possessions, but the Pride played on edge and racked up numerous fouls.
Hofstra came close to taking the lead, despite their struggles to rebound, with another rally to score seven consecutive points and put the Pride within two with 15:37 left.
But a Northeastern 9-0 run made Hofstra’s climb for a comeback tougher and the Huskies regained their 11 point lead for the second time in the game.
Later on, the Pride found themselves in the same scenario: down by two points and right around the corner from taking Northeastern’s lead away with 8:15 left. Yet, Hofstra couldn’t capitalize when they needed to most, due to Northeastern hitting back-to-back baskets to pull out in front.
Northeastern started one last run as the final dagger for the Pride outscoring Hofstra 10-2 to propel their lead to 14 points on the night – the highest amount in the game. A Juan’ya Green three-pointer brought the game to it’s final score, 79-68.
Green led the Pride with 18 points and 10 assists, while Gustys made some good impressions with the second-highest point total on the night with 13 and led the Pride in steals (3) and rebounds (4).
Freshman Malik Nichols scored an even dozen to lead the Pride behind Green and Gustys despite fouling out at the end of the game.
The Pride dropped to 16-10 (7-6 in the CAA) while Northeastern improved to 17-9 (9-4 in the CAA). Hofstra remains in sixth place while the Huskies jump to second place, sharing the spot with UNC-Wilmington.
The next matchup for the Pride is on the road this Sunday Feb. 15 against the Drexel Dragons. Tipoff is set for 5:00 p.m.
