After months of waiting to return to the court due to COVID-19,the defending Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) champion Hofstra men’s basketball team was back in action for their season opener on Sunday, Nov. 29. They fell 70-56 to No. 24 Rutgers University in Piscataway, New Jersey.
The Pride’s second-half surge, led by senior guard Jalen Ray,was not enough to take down the now 3-0 Scarlet Knights, as Hofstra opened their season with a loss for the second year in a row. Although the Pride battled at the end, Rutgers led in almost all offensive stat categories, including field goal percentage, three-point percentage, total assists and total rebounds.
“We battled … we just couldn’t make any shots, we couldn’t throw it into the ocean,” said Hofstra acting head coach Mike Farrelly. “There were a couple of times in the second half where I thought we were a play away from making it really interesting. But overall, when you’re playing a nationally ranked team, you’re going to have to defend and rebound the way that we did, and then obviously we have to make shots.”
The first half was all Rutgers, as the team took control early and used a 12-1 scoring run to go ahead 22-11 after nine minutes of play. After Hofstra cut their deficit to seven points, the Scarlet Knights exploded again and took a 16-point lead with just under four minutes remaining in the half.
Jacob Young was the leader on the court during both offensive surges and scored 11 of Rutgers’ 32 points in the first half.
“We didn’t quite have our wind yet, obviously we had a couple guys go down and banged up in the middle of the game too, so we got out of our normal rotation and certain guys had to play longer stretches,” Farrelly said.
The Scarlet Knights opened the second half the same way they had controlled the entire first half, going on a 13-2 scoring run to reach their largest lead of the night at 22 points. However, following Clifford Omoruyi’s layup that put Rutgers up by over 20, Hofstra began their climb back into the game.
The Pride spread the ball all over the court and used points from Isaac Kante, Omar Silverio, Tareq Coburn, Kevin Schutte, Kvonn Cramer and Shawndarius Cowart to cut Rutgers’ lead down to only 10.
With Hofstra on a 17-5 tear, Ron Harper Jr.’s layup extended the Knights’ lead to 12 and pushed the momentum back in their favor.
“At that point I felt like if we could just get one more stop we could put some pressure on them, and with the way we were making shots, it could go from 10 [points] to four real quick,” Farrelly said. “We had to get that key [stop] at a key time, but unfortunately, we didn’t get to put more pressure on them. I would have liked to see us get one more stop and one more score and see how they would have reacted.”
The Pride made several more attempts to go on a run late in the game, but they failed to get within less than 11 points of the lead.
Ray led Hofstra in scoring with 22 points, but no other player on the Pride reached double digits.
“[Ray], [Coburn] and [Kante] have to be those rocks for us to be good,” Farrelly said. “They’re going to steady us as we bring these other younger guys and the pieces around them along.”
On Rutgers’ side, three players reached double-digit scoring as Young totaled 17 points, Harper Jr. had 15 and Montez Mathis scored 14.
The Pride will be right back at it on Monday, Nov. 30, for their home opener as they take on Fairleigh Dickinson University at 7 p.m.
Photo Courtesy of Hofstra Athletics
