The Hofstra Pride men’s basketball team fell 73-71 to the University of Delaware Fightin’ Blue Hens in a very close game Thursday, Jan. 23, at the David. S. Mack Sports and Exhibition Complex as Delaware guard Kevin Anderson ended the game with a buzzer beating layup.
With the loss, the Pride fell to 14-7 on the season and they are now 5-3 in Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) play.
“I didn’t do what I was supposed to do and he went down the court and scored,” said Pride player Desure Buie after the loss. Anderson finished tied for the second highest point total on his team with 15 points, but none was bigger than the shot to secure the road victory for his team.
“We let a guy with a blue shirt dribble through five guys and make a layup, and shame on us for doing that,” said Hofstra head coach Joe Mihalich.
In the first half, it was a game of runs as both teams exchanged mini scoring bursts. Delaware’s Nate Darling opened up the game by hitting a three-pointer to get on the scoreboard first. Jalen Ray then got on the board for the Pride with a mid-range jumper. Both teams exchanged baskets for a while before Delaware went on a 7-0 run during a 2:05 minute span in the first five minutes of play. This led the Pride to a 16-7 lead with 13:22 remaining in the first half. The Pride then answered back with their own 13-0 run in a little over three minutes to lead 20-16 with 11 minutes to go until the intermission. Hofstra then continued their dominance by holding Delaware off the scoreboard for a four minute span, during which the Pride forced three turnovers. The Blue Hens went a total of 8:18 without hitting a field goal until center Dylan Painter got a put back dunk to end the drought.
Over the next three minutes, both teams began to trade buckets until the Blue Hens got rolling on offense. They went on a 14-0 run from under the four-minute mark in the half until Buie hit a pull up jumper with 1:28 left until the intermission to make the score 36-32 for Delaware. The teams went into the break with the Blue Hens leading 38-37. Jalen Ray led Hofstra in scoring with nine points, hitting 2-3 from behind the arc in the first half.
Dylan Painter and Justyn Mutts led the Blue Hens with 11 points each. Hofstra shot 40 percent from the field while allowing the Blue Hens to shoot 47 percent.
In the second half, neither team scored until Mutts hit a post hook in the lane over Eli Pemberton two minutes in. Delaware built a double-digit lead with 11:18 left in the game, but thanks to stellar play by Buie on both sides of the court, the Pride was able to show their sprit and claw their way back to 60-58 with 7:19 remaining.
Mutts and Painter provided many problems all day for the Pride inside, both securing double-doubles on the evening with 30 points and 13 rebounds for Mutts and 15 points with 12 boards for Painter.
After some fight, Pemberton gave the Pride a late lead with a spinning layup while drawing a foul, converting on the and-one to push the Pride to a 69-67 advantage with under two minutes remaining in the game. Mutts then tied up the game at 69 with a post-hook with 55 seconds left, followed by a go ahead put-back of his own to give Delaware a 71-69 lead with 18 seconds left in the contest.
Down two points, Jalen Ray was fouled with six seconds remaining, sinking both free throws and tying the game at 71-71. Shortly after a timeout, Delaware inbounded the ball to Anderson, and he cruised by the defense to win the game on a layup at the rim over the Pride’s Stafford Trueheart.
Delaware now moves to 14-7 on the year and a solid .500 in conference play at 4-4. They will look to improve next week when they travel to Boston to take on defending CAA champion Northeastern. Hofstra will be in action on Saturday, Jan. 25, when they host Drexel. That game will start at 4 p.m.
Image Courtesy of Hofstra Athletics
