WASHINGTON, D.C.—The Hofstra men’s basketball team arrived at the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) tournament early on Sunday afternoon ready to play. As for their opponent in the quarterfinal round, neither William nor Mary could say the same. With a record-setting performance at the Entertainment and Sports Arena, Hofstra devoured the College of William & Mary (W&M), 94-46, with the largest margin of victory in the history of the CAA tournament.
“We came out with the right mindset, and we put them away right from the start,” said Hofstra head coach Speedy Claxton. “That’s what we wanted to do. Get off to a good start, and just keep it rolling.”
Hofstra outscored W&M 51-14 in the game’s opening 20 minutes, the largest halftime lead ever in the conference tournament and never looked back.
“They just seemed to have an answer for whatever we did,” said W&M head coach Dane Fischer. “What was probably the most impressive was the way they defended. We just couldn’t get into a rhythm offensively.”
The Tribe shot just 30% from the field in the game as Hofstra’s defense easily smothered any momentum W&M carried from their win the day before.
“We’re a defensive-minded team,” Claxton said. “We allow our defense to fuel our offense. When we get out in transition, we’re extremely hard to stop.”
There was no stopping the Pride as Aaron Estrada had a double-double collecting 10 rebounds while tying Tyler Thomas with a game-high 22 points. As a duo, Hofstra’s two all-CAA selections combined to shoot an efficient 18-24 combined from the field.
“We said in warmups that we wanted to throw the first punch and suffocate them,” said Jaquan Carlos who scored 15 points in the win. “We didn’t want them to have any breathing room.”
Hofstra’s punches were knock-out blows as the Pride asserted their dominance as the tournament’s top seed. On the other side of the bracket, UNC-Wilmington earned the right to face Hofstra tomorrow at 6 pm after defeating Drexel University 73-68. If the Seahawks paid attention, they’d heed the words of the Pride’s latest victim.
“Hofstra is a very complete team,” Fischer said. “They'”They’veuards that can play with just about anybody and bigs that can defend and score on the block. They’re really good, and I think that they can make a run in March because they have the pieces you need to do that.”
Photo courtesy of Hofstra Athletics/Evan Bernstein
