The Hofstra Pride men’s basketball team had their eight-game win streak snapped at the hands of the Towson University Tigers 76-65 Thursday, Feb. 27, at the David S. Mack Sports and Exhibition Complex.
“They were clearly the tougher team, they were the hungrier team and they were the better team,” said Hofstra head coach Joe Mihalich. “We are going to tip our hats to them and look at ourselves in the mirror and decide that if we want to win a championship, we got to learn from tonight.”
The Pride offense struck early as Hofstra jumped out to a 12-4 lead in the opening minutes. Towson responded by going on a 13-5 run to tie the game at 17 halfway through the first half.
After exchanging points for the next six minutes, the Tigers would take control of the lead for good with a basket from Nicolas Timberlake sparking a 9-0 Tiger run. Towson countered a Hofstra basket in the closing minute with a buzzer-beating layup by Timberlake to give Towson a 43-35 advantage at halftime.
The Pride came out strong in the second half, cutting the lead to four after an Isaac Kante layup. However, Towson prevailed and responded to each Pride conversion, never allowing Hofstra to take back the lead.
For the first time this season only four Hofstra players scored in the game. Tareq Coburn led the way with 21 points on 6-of-10 shooting including 3-of-4 beyond the arc. Kante added 20 more points shooting a stellar 9-of-10 from the field. Eli Pemberton netted 18 points with eight rebounds while Desure Buie rounded out the scoring with six points and nine assists in the contest.
Each Tiger converted a basket in the game with Brian Fobbs recording 21 points and seven rebounds and Timberlake adding 12 more points.
Towson controlled the glass, out rebounding Hofstra 49-26 including 26 second chance points off of 24 offensive rebounds.
“It was our rebounding. They had 24 offensive rebounds and 14 in the first half. 20 of their points in the first half were second chance points,” Mihalich said. “I’m not going to say our defense was good because I don’t think anything was good.”
The Tigers also controlled the bench points, dropping 24 while holding the Hofstra bench scoreless in the game.
“Coaches write too many things on the board, myself included,” Mihalich said. “We just went through everything on that board and we did nothing that we talked about on that board. Not one thing, so we got what we deserved.”
For the Pride to win an outright CAA regular-season championship, they need either a win on Sunday or a loss by the College of William & Mary.
The Pride ends the regular season on Saturday, February 29, when they welcome James Madison University on senior day at 4 p.m.
Image Courtesy of Hofstra Atheltics
