By Anders Jorstad – STAFF WRITER
For the second time this season, the Hofstra Pride men’s basketball team went to battle against one of the top teams in the conference and went into overtime to decide the fate of the contest.
For the second time, the Pride fell in that overtime period to the James Madison Dukes, falling on the road by a score of 98-95 on Sunday afternoon.
Interestingly, this game didn’t follow the mold of a typical Pride loss.
Hofstra shot tremendously well from three-point range, making 34 percent of its attempts from deep. Junior guard Brian Bernardi had a solid outing, scoring 22 points and converting 9-of-17 shot attempts.
The Pride had a 10-rebound advantage in the contest and three players for the blue and gold posted double-doubles: Denton Koon, Rokas Gustys, and Ameen Tanksley.
Yet in the end, it wasn’t enough. Hofstra led by as much as 14 late in the first frame and held a nine-point advantage with 3:34 to go in the game.
Turnovers, fouling and a hot hand from Ron Corry allowed JMU to tie the game in the waning seconds of regulation.
“They made some tough shots,” Hofstra head coach Joe Mihalich said of what allowed James Madison to get back into it. “[Shakir] Brown got us again with a deep corner [three], Curry got a long rebound. It’s the kind of things you can’t control.”
In overtime, the Dukes kept trying to pull away only to find Hofstra hard on their heels.
The Pride was led by timely three-point shooting and eventually gave them an opportunity to tie the game with a three in the final possession. Koon missed a long jumper at the end under heavy defense as the Dukes came away with a victory.
A few things stand out in the loss for Hofstra.
For starters, James Madison is simply a deeper team. While multiple Pride players found themselves in foul trouble near the end of the game and many players were fatigued, JMU continued to send fresh bodies onto the court.
Nine total players scored points for James Madison and 10 players logged minutes in the game.
While Hofstra also shot well from long range, JMU shot even better as the Dukes made deep looks at a 47 percent clip. Regardless of how good an offense you possess, it’s difficult to compete with the kind of scoring the Dukes displayed.
“I’ve never felt worse for these guys,” Mihalich said of his team. “They played their hearts out. I’ve never been more proud of a team and my heart’s broken for them.”
Despite the loss, the Pride come out of the game with a positive.
Juan’ya Green scored his 1,000th point as a member of the Pride, and is now just one of four players in NCAA history to have scored 1,000 or more points at two different Division I schools.
The star point guard also scored 1,131 points during his time at Niagara in his first two collegiate seasons.
“He’s an incredible player,” said Mihalich of his star guard. “He’s an even better person. I’ve said this a couple of times: the most incredible thing about this accomplishment is that I don’t think of him as a scorer. All of these points that he’s scored, he’s only the fourth player to score 1,000 points at two schools. I don’t think of him as a scorer. That’s how good of a player he is.”
Hofstra falls to 8-4 in the conference with the loss and is now tied for third place in the CAA. James Madison is also 8-4 with the victory.
The Pride will play this Thursday when they hit the road to face William & Mary. That game will tip off at 7 p.m.
