By Felipe Fontes — STAFF WRITER
The Hofstra men’s basketball team came away with a huge win on Friday night, blowing past Molloy College for a 107-72 win.
The 35-point victory for the Pride came in a crucial time after dropping three consecutive games in matchups against Clemson University, Auburn University and Siena College.
After facing off against these big-name schools in these tough matchups, the Division II matchup against Molloy had the intentions of being a confidence booster, and it happened to be exactly that.
The Pride were entirely too much for the Lions to handle, both on the defensive and offensive side of the court.
Defensively, Hofstra pestered Molloy all throughout the game, forcing 16 turnovers. Picking the pockets of the Lions’ players with ease, the Pride came away with 11 steals, with Eli Pemberton getting three himself.
Along with steals, the Pride defended the basket with some invigorating blocks. Out of five total, forward Hunter Sabety had three of them, sending the last one into the crowd to put a stamp on the Pride’s commanding performance with a minute and thirty seconds left to go in the game.
As the defense was holding the back end, the Pride’s offense was lighting up the scoreboard.
Hofstra had five players reach double-figures, with freshman forward Matija Radovic hitting the mark for the first time in his collegiate career. Radovic hit four out of six from both the three-point line and the free-throw line, totaling 16 points in the win.
“He made shots and that’s what he does. He hasn’t been doing that, so I was really happy to see that. It was good to see that ball going through the hoop for him. When you’re a good shooter like he is, just that feeling of the ball going through the net like that can hopefully build on that, build some confidence and lead to another good game,” said head coach Joe Mihalich after the game.
Also having big games for the Pride were Justin Wright-Foreman with 23 points and Pemberton who had nearly a perfect game going seven for eight from the field with no turnovers, ending the night with 19 points.
In the paint, center Rokas Gustys was once again an immovable force, grabbing 15 total rebounds along with 14 points for his second consecutive double-double.
“When we’re firing on all cylinders it’s always fun. Especially with me, [Pemberton] and [Gustys] being the leaders, we have to spread the ball. It makes the game a lot more fun for everybody,” Wright-Foreman said.
For the Lions, Nick Corbett led the way with 20 points, while starting point guard Curtis Jenkins put up 17 in the defeat, also committing six turnovers.
A prevailing win like this should serve Hofstra well as they get set to take on a long road trip where they will face fiercer competition, visiting both Monmouth University and Rider University in the near future.
“It’s fun to go on the road. We have two tough places to play. Monmouth has been good and Rider has been good. It’ll be a good challenge, and we’re going to have to play a lot better than we did today and certainly than we did against Siena to have a chance to win the game,” Mihalich said.
With tougher competition up next on the schedule, the Pride will certainly look to build off the strong victory against Molloy in order to have the best chance to win going forward.
Monmouth will welcome the Pride on Dec. 6 at 7 p.m.
