The Hofstra men’s basketball team lost a road matchup on Tuesday, Jan. 11 against Towson University, 78 to 66. Coming off its win against James Madison University (JMU) on Sunday, Hofstra fell short in what seemed to be a close matchup for the majority of the game. Towson was led by guard Jason Gibson who finished with a team-leading 26 points, to go along with 4 assists, 5 rebounds and 3 steals. He also shot eight for 12 from three-point range.  

The first half started off strong for both teams as they traded buckets back and forth with neither team getting a large advantage on the other. Although Towson was able to gain a 22-17 lead on Hofstra with about eight minutes to go, the Pride answered with a string of good defense which eventually led to a 7-2 run tying the game at 24 apiece. Both teams kept it close as Hofstra went on another 7-2 run to cut the Tigers’ lead down to 2 at the half. 

Towson started the second half with a commanding 9-1 run taking a 46-36 lead, with over 16 minutes left to go. From that point on the Tigers took control of the game, stretching the lead every time Hofstra got close. 

The Pride’s second half defense was not great as every time the offense started cracking away at the lead, Towson would answer with a score of its own. The difference in the game was the 3-point shooting as the Tigers shot 47.1% from the arc while Hofstra shot 28.6%. Towson’s bench was also a big factor, combining for 18 points as Hofstra’s just had six. 

 “On nights like this where you’re not scoring the ball particularly well you got to rely on your defense, and our defense wasn’t quite there today,” said Hofstra head coach Speedy Claxton.

Hofstra’s Aaron Estrada was a workhorse for the Pride in this one as the junior guard played the entire 40 minutes, ending with 24 points, 4 rebounds and 2 assists. He has been a key player for the Pride all season, averaging nearly 15 points per game. His performance was important in the absence of Zach Cooks. “That’s 20 points, I mean you don’t have to say anything after that,” Claxton said. “Whenever you lose 20 points out of your lineup it’s going to be hard to recover from that. Hopefully we’ll get him back pretty soon here.”

This loss brings the Pride to 9-7 on the season and it has a short, three-day break before its next matchup, which comes against the University of Delaware at the David S. Mack Sports and Exhibition Complex on Saturday, Jan. 15. 

Photo courtesy of Evan Bernstein/The Hofstra Chronicle