It came down to the final buzzer, but the Hofstra women’s basketball team could not complete the comeback, falling at home 63-60 to the College of Charleston on Sunday, Feb 2.

The Pride fall to 3-17 and remain winless in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA). Sophomore forward Arynn Eady led all scorers for Elon with 2 and the Pride had three players in double figures, led by Jaylen Hines, who had 11 points and a career-high 18 rebounds.

“[I’m] really proud of the girls fight tonight,” said Hofstra head coach Danielle Santos-Atkinson. “I think we’re getting closer to playing the 40 minutes of consistency that we’re looking for in this team.”

The Cougars put very early pressure on the Pride, forcing them into nine turnovers in the first quarter alone. Additionally, Charleston got off to a hot start from three, hitting three of their first five shots from long range. This combination led the Cougars to a 16-8 lead after the first quarter.

“The last few games, we’ve had great starts,” Santos-Atkinson said. “I thought our start was a little slow today.”

It got worse for the Pride before it got better, as Charleston went on a 7-2 run to begin the second quarter, taking a 13- point lead, their largest of the game. After that, the Pride started to figure everything out on offense.

Caria Reynolds hit two layups and Sandra Karsten hit a pair of three-pointers, keying a 17-7 run over 4:22 to cut the Cougars lead down to three. Unfortunately for the Pride, Charleston responded with a 6-0 run, taking a nine-point lead into the half.

Part of what helped the Pride begin to cut into the deficit and make the game competitive was their three-point defense. After starting the game 3-5 from three, the Cougars shot just 2-25 for the rest of the game. This defensive focus, combined with the Pride out-rebounding the Cougars by nine, gave the Pride better opportunities to get into an offensive rhythm and cut into the Charleston lead.

“Teams can shoot the ball when they’re wide open, and we were giving up some wide-open threes,” Santos-Atkinson said. “We made some adjustments, and I thought we did a much better job of being there on the catch and forcing them into drives from the perimeter.”

The second half started with both teams going back and forth, with neither team taking a significant advantage. Towards the end of the quarter, the Pride took advantage of their spacing, getting to the line and scoring inside en route to a 9-3 run to cut the lead to three. Shawn Mills capped off this run with a buzzer-beating mid-ranged jump shot, her second make of the day.

The Pride built off of this momentum in the fourth quarter, cutting the deficit down to just one point. However, the Pride could not get the big shot to fall, allowing the Cougars to distance themselves, leading by as much as five with less than a minute remaining.

The Pride made one last push, with Jaylen Hines hitting an and-one layup with 8.9 seconds remaining to cut the lead to two points. They had a shot to tie the game at the buzzer, as the Cougars hit just one of their two free throws on the other way down. Karsten grabbed the miss and dished the ball to Sorelle Ineza, who pushed it down the court to Hines. Hines found Ana Hernandez-Gil open in the corner, who could not get the shot off in time, sealing the victory for the Cougars.

The Pride continues to look for their first win in conference play at home on Friday, Feb. 7, against the Drexel University Dragons.

Image courtesy of Hofstra Athletics