The Manhattan College Jaspers handed the Hofstra Pride its second loss last night by a score of 80-68. Hofstra falls to 1-2 while Manhattan improves to the same record.
Despite the loss, sophomore guard Justin Wright-Foreman put up a career high 17 points, all in the second half. Freshman Eli Pemberton added 15 points himself, his third straight game scoring in double figures.
“We got beat by a team that player harder, was tougher, scrappier and defended better,” said Hofstra’s head coach Joe Mihalich. “We’ve learned that we have to want to play defense more.”
Pemberton and the rest of Hofstra’s offense started hot, jumping out to an 11-4 lead in the opening minutes. In that time, Mihalich had Jamall Robinson, Hunter Sabety, Desure Buie and Wright-Foreman were all circulated in from the bench.
As the half progressed the Jaspers did as well, going on a 13-1 scoring run that put them ahead of the Pride 17-12. Manhattan took a 42-34 lead into the locker room after the first 20 minutes played. Pemberton put up a 10 point half. Brian Bernardi and Deron Powers scored seven apiece.
Ty Greer only played for 16 minutes on the night, mostly in the first half. Pemberton was held to only five points in the second half and was blanked for about the first nine minutes of it as well. Around this time, Wright-Foreman began commanding the Pride’s offense. One of his three pointers cut the Manhattan lead to six, the closest Hofstra came to tying. Mihalich said there were “very few bright spots tonight but that’s one of them,” referring to Wright-Foreman’s career high scoring night.
Manhattan took command of the closing minutes and shut down the Pride’s final attempts at a comeback. Rokas Gustys faced very physical resistance on the glass, getting brought to the ground hard on many drives. He still neared a double-double with eight rebounds and seven points. After three games, Gustys has 41 boards on the year. Bernardi finished the night with 14 points as a key contributor to Hofstra’s offense.
Hofstra flies down to Estero, Florida, next to face Bradley University in the first game of the 2016 Gulf Showcase, trying to pick up another win and even out the team’s record.
