By Joe Fay — STAFF WRITER
The Hofstra mens basketball team suffered a heartbreaking, season-ending 82-80 loss at the hands of the George Washington Colonials on Wednesday night in the first round of the NIT. The Pride came back from a double-digit deficit just to have the effort wiped out by a last-second jumper by GW.
George Washington won the tip and both teams got off to a quick start, with GW ahead 11-9 five minutes into the game. Hofstra started the game playing well, and held the lead for a few minutes early in the first half. The Pride had its largest lead of the game, a five-point advantage, at 9:26.
The Colonials began to chip away at the lead as Hofstra began missing shots and turning over the ball at a high rate.
GW regained the lead with around four minutes left in the first half and never trailed again.
The Prides offensive struggles got worse as the half progressed, and Hofstra watched as the GW lead grew to 13 before the half.
At halftime Hofstra trailed the Colonials 49-38.
The Pride had 10 first-half turnovers that allowed GW to pull ahead, even though Hofstra managed to shoot 48 percent from the floor and 87 percent from the free-throw line. Juanya Green and Denton Koon led the way for the Pride with nine first half points each. The Colonials shot 52 percent from the field and drained six three-pointers to build the lead.
Hofstra came out of halftime determined to give their all until the final buzzer to try and extend their season.
Two minutes into the second half, the GW lead had been cut to five points, 51-46. The Pride battled, but it seemed like the team wouldnt be able to catch a break.
The Colonials maintained the lead, keeping between five and eight points ahead for most of the second half. Every time Hofstra pulled closer, GW would hit a huge three-pointer to keep the edge.
With 10 minutes remaining in the game, the Pride still trailed by eight. Things began to look grim when GW pushed the lead back to 11 with 7:07 to go.
There was a long period when neither team could hit a basket, with fouls and turnovers at both ends of the floor.
Then, with 3:03 left on the clock, Green pulled up and hit a huge three to pull Hofstra within six, 77-71.
The teams traded three-pointers to make it 80-74 with 2:22 remaining. With less than two minutes left in the game, Rokas Gustys hit an open layup with 1:40 left and had a huge dunk a minute later, making the score 80-78 with 48 seconds to go.
Hofstra fans now had hope of witnessing a comeback, after watching in agony for most of the game.
The Colonials then missed another three-pointer, and the rebound was grabbed by Green.
Green took over in his teams moment of need, going coast-to-coast to complete the game-tying layup with just 13.8 seconds left in the game.
Hofstra head coach Joe Mihalich quickly called timeout to go over the teams defensive strategy on the final play of the game.
GW inbounded the ball to Alex Mitola who entered the paint, stepped back, and threw up a wild shot.
The shot somehow fell into the basket with two seconds left on the clock, giving the Colonials an 82-80 lead.
Hofstra was out of timeouts, so the ball was inbounded to Green, who tossed a desperation half-court shot as time expired that was no good.
And that was how the 2015-2016 season ended for the Pride, with a thrilling comeback squashed by a game-winning shot by GW.
Green, Koon and Ameen Tanksley all gave quality performances in their final college game.
Green notched a double-double (26 points, 10 assists), while Koon (19 points) and Tanksley (12 points) had big shots to keep Hofstra in the game.
Gustys had yet another double-double (14 points, 13 rebounds) for his 22nd of the year.
Hofstra shot 53 percent in the game. However, their 20 turnovers spelled disaster with GW scoring a good chunk of its points off them.
Every Hofstra player had at least one turnover, and three players had four apiece.
Now Hofstra must look ahead to next year, when they will no longer have their star guard or his supporting cast.
The Pride will be grooming its new point guard, Desure Buie, and relying on Gustys to have another breakout year.
Gustys broke the Hofstra single-season record for rebounds this season, grabbing 442 boards over the course of the season, beating the previous 39-year Division I record of 400.
Even as Hofstra fans grieve the end of the Prides 2015-16 run, they should keep in mind that the future is bright, with new stars rising.
