Hofstra men’s basketball managed to pull out a narrow 75-71 victory over the Northeastern University Huskies on Saturday, Feb. 8, at the David S. Mack Sports and Exhibition Complex.
Desure Buie and Jalen Ray each poured in 22 points apiece in the game, while on the other side, Jordan Roland led the Huskies with 32 points.
Roland was the first person to score in the game, hitting a mid-range jumper over Jalen Ray for the 2-0 lead. The Huskies then went on a 6-0 run, forcing Hofstra to call an early timeout trailing 8-0 at the 17:50 mark. The Pride started out the game in man-to-man defense, which is uncommon since they are predominately a 2-3 zone defense.
“Sometimes it gives us energy… there are three or four games where we did that and it’s been good to us, but it wasn’t [today] so we went back to zone,” said Hofstra head coach Joe Mihalich.
Hofstra started out early shooting 0-for-5 from the field and did not hit a basket until Tareq Coburn hit a three-pointer to make the score 13-4, in favor of the Huskies, with under 15 minutes to go in the half. Roland then hit a fadeaway three from the left corner to put his team up 18-4 with 13:25 to go until intermission.
No one had success early for Hofstra offensively as they struggled to knock down shots from the field going 5-for-20 up until the eight-minute mark, compared to the Huskies 10-for-17 from the field.
Slowly, the Pride began to claw their way back into the game off a mini 5-0 run by Pemberton started on a three-pointer from the left wing to cut the deficit to eight points. The Pride would come as close as six points with 1:44 left in the half until Northeastern went to the line and made both pairs of free throws to lead 38-28 with a minute remaining. Desure Buie would close out the half for the Pride with a turn around jumper at the buzzer to head to the break trailing 40-30.
Roland was the high performer for Northeastern and their only double-digit scorer, netting 19 points in the half going 7-for-12 from the field as well as 3-for-7 from behind the arc. Pemberton was the only double-digit scorer for the Pride in the half as well, leading the way with 12 points on 4-for-11 shooting from the field. Collectively, the Pride shot 31% from the floor in the first half and that percentage dipped to 25% from downtown. The Huskies shot 51% from the field and a scintillating 44% from three.
The defensive tenacity for both teams picked up early in the second half, with both teams combining for only 10 points in the first four minutes. Over the next four minutes, there would be unfavorable calls from the referees on both sides, none bigger than the call that gave Huskies star Roland his fourth foul on the evening, which prompted the head coach of the Huskies, Bill Coen, to pull his star player from the game. With Roland gone, the Pride went on a 9-0 run over a 2:43 span in which they made five of seven shots from the field. Stafford Trueheart stole the ball and dunked it in transition to send the Mack Complex into a frenzy as the team cut within four points. The Pride tied the game at 50 with under 10 minutes to go in the game and at the nine-minute mark, they took a 53-52 lead over Northeastern off a three-point shot by Ray.
Buie then sank back-to-back threes to give the Pride a 59-54 lead with 7:12 left in the game, which capped off a 20-4 run by Hofstra. Both teams struggled to score down the stretch but Hofstra found the bottom of the net a little more over the closing minutes en route to their home victory. Northeastern cut it to 69-68 off a fadeaway, one-handed shot by Roland, but still came up short.
“Our late game execution was great. All the execution goes to them … To a tee, these guys were great,” Mihalich said.
Hofstra has now won four straight games and move to 18-7 on the year, and 9-3 in Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) play. The Huskies drop their fourth straight contest and fall to 11-13 on the year with a 5-7 record in the CAA.
Hofstra is in action again Thursday, Feb. 13, when they face the College of Charleston at home. That game starts at 7 p.m. and will be televised on the CBS Sports Network.
Photo Courtesy of Hofstra Athletics
