With homages to his iconic beige blazer visible all over the David S. Mack Sports and Exhibition Complex, former Hofstra men’s basketball head coach Joe Mihalich was honored in the most appropriate way possible when Zach Cooks ended the game ‘On a Make’ for the Pride, defeating Northeastern University by a final score of 76-73 on Saturday, Feb. 19.
“[Northeastern is] a good team. They’re much better than their record,” said Hofstra head coach Speedy Claxton. “I told my guys that. I’m like, ‘Listen, this is a trap game. Northeastern is well-coached, like, don’t get it twisted.’ Their record does not indicate their team.”
Despite pitting the best and worst scoring offenses in the Colonial Athletic Association against each other, the game was close throughout. With Hofstra up by four midway through the opening half, a run of threes from Shaquille Walters and Jason Strong gave Northeastern a 21-16 advantage. Jaylen Ray later reclaimed the lead for the Pride with a three of his own, but Jahmyl Telfort stole it back once again for the Huskies with a tip-in to make the score 32-29 at the half.
“I just told these guys [at halftime], ‘Listen, we missed a bunch of shots that we normally would make,” Claxton said. “Keep shooting, if you have an open shot, take it.’”
Telfort led his team with 11 points at halftime, while Aaron Estrada led all scorers with 12 of his own.
However, the Pride and the CAA’s leading scorer then went quiet to begin the second half as Northeastern dominated play. An assertive dunk from Telfort followed up by a three from Quirin Emanga jumpstarted a run for the Huskies that stretched their lead to double digits midway through the half. It wasn’t until there were less than 10 minutes to play that Estrada scored his first points of the second half and the momentum began to swing back in the Pride’s favor as a 6-0 run pulled Hofstra back to within single digits with under five left to play.
“We just wanted to chip away, chip away, chip away,” Claxton said. “And that’s what we did.”
With Northeastern up 70-64 with two minutes left to play, Claxton sent Estrada, Cooks and Ray, along with Darlinstone Dubar and Justin Simmons, onto the floor. Ray instantly hit a pull-up three to cut Northeastern’s lead in half. With under a minute remaining, Hofstra had hit 7 of their last 8 field goal attempts, but the efforts of the Huskies’ big men in Telfort and Chris Doherty kept the lead just barely out of reach.
Down by one with 8.6 seconds left to play, Cooks took the game into his hands as he drove to the hoop. In the air, with arms swatting at him from all directions, the graduate guard sank a reverse left-handed layup to give Hofstra the lead – one that held until the final buzzer.
“You put the ball in my hands, and I’ll just go make a play,” Cooks said.
“[Cooks] is a big-time player,” Claxton said. “You know when the moment is bright, that’s when he’s going to shine. The moment was bright tonight, and he came through. I knew he was going to make it.”
The win extended Hofstra’s winning streak to six games and improved their record to 19-9. Even more important was that the win honored former head coach Mihalich.
“We’re celebrating [Coach Mihalich],” Claxton said. “We definitely wanted to win for him, and we did just that.”
The Pride’s homestand to conclude the regular season will continue on Thursday, Feb. 24, when they take on Elon University at 7 p.m.
Photo courtesy of Adam Flash/The Hofstra Chronicle
