A strong second half rally wasn’t enough to surmount a slow start and sloppy finish for the Hofstra University men’s basketball team, as the Pride fell 74-56 to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Runnin’ Rebels on Thursday, Dec. 21, in Las Vegas. The loss drops Hofstra to 7-5 in non-conference play, while UNLV evened its record at 5-5.

“Tough one,” said Hofstra head coach Speedy Claxton. “A couple possessions here and there, we had a couple bad possessions and costly turnovers that cost us the game.”

The age-old adage that basketball is a game of runs was on full display in this contest, as both sides went on multiple lengthy stretches of dominance. UNLV opened up an 11-point lead within the game’s first eight minutes and later used a 14-3 run to bury the Pride in the second half. After heading to the locker room down 36-24, the Pride opened the second half on a blistering 16-2 run of their own to take their only lead of the game with 15:26 to play.

“We started playing some defense, and Tyler [Thomas] started hitting some shots,” Claxton said.

To no surprise, Hofstra’s lowest scoring output of the season coincided with Tyler Thomas’ worst shooting night thus far. After entering the game as the nation’s fifth leading scorer, Thomas managed just 13 points on an abysmal 4-20 from the floor.

“It’s gonna be tough for us to win games where he goes 4-20, it doesn’t happen very often,” Claxton said. “ Tonight, it happened, and that was the ballgame.”

While Thomas fell flat offensively, Darlinstone Dubar continued his steady scoring pace, leading all scorers with 17 points and putting up double figures for the 13th consecutive game. The junior once again carved up the opposing defense with machine-like efficiency, shooting 7-10 from the field and posting a smooth 3-5 mark from 3-point range.

“[Dubar] has been consistent all year; that’s what we need from him,” Claxton said. “He gave us a spark when we needed it. We went to him a lot in the second half and he delivered.”

The Mountain West Conference is notorious for producing physical, bruising forwards, and Hofstra’s frontcourt faced a daunting task in matching the production of UNLV’s bigs. Nonetheless, the duo of Silas Sunday and Jacco Fritz helped keep the Pride in the game by combining for 10 points, 11 rebounds and three assists.

“[Sunday] gave us some great minutes,” Claxton said. “This was more of a game for him because of the physicality of their bigs.”

The going doesn’t get any easier for the Pride following the hard-fought loss, as Hofstra now looks ahead to a marquee matchup with the Saint John’s University Red Storm on Saturday, Dec. 30, at UBS Arena in Elmont, New York. The Red Storm is out to an 8-3 start in Rick Pitino’s maiden season and have defeated their last two opponents by a combined 37 points.

“Still proud of this team,” Claxton reiterated. “They’re fighters, and they’ll bounce back from this. Now we go get Saint John’s.”

Photo courtesy of Lucas Peltier