The Hofstra Pride men’s basketball team secured a win on their home floor beating Long Island rival, the Stony Brook University Seawolves, 71-63 at the David S. Mack Arena. This was the Pride’s first home contest since beating New York Tech on Friday, November 15.
Desure Buie led Hofstra in scoring with 20 points and also added six assists. Jalen Ray added 17 points, coming up big with a three pointer late in the game to give the Pride the lead.
Andrew Garcia lead the Seawolves with 18 points as Makale Foreman netted 16 points.
“[It’s a] crosstown rival game, it’s a bragging rights game, and I am really proud to say that this time we were able to sneak by,” said Hofstra head coach Joe Mihalich.
The Pride started out hitting their first three 3-pointers on the night, one from Eli Pemberton, another from Buie and the last coming from Ray. Hofstra was in the lead 9-5 before Stony Brook went on a brief 9-0 run to take a 14-9 lead with 15 minutes left in the first half. Both teams struggled to score over the next three minutes of the game until the Pride began to pick up their play on the defensive side of the ball, using steals and a block to ignite their offense and tie the game at 20 in the middle of the first half.
Both teams would then struggle to find the bottom of the net as the Pride shot under 40 percent from the floor, but managed to limit Stony Brook’s offensive opportunities by turning them over and getting out into transition. The leading scorer for Hofstra in the first half was Ray with 11 points going 4-8 from the field. Buie and Pemberton both chipped in eight points as Hofstra headed into the locker room with a 36-34 lead. For Stony Brook, Foreman scored 11 points in the half, six of which came off two three pointers in the last minute before the intermission to pull within Hofstra’s lead.
Neither team would come out of halftime hitting shots as Hofstra only outscored Stony Brook 5-3 over the first five minutes of the second half, with both teams missing mid-range jump shots and layups near the rim. Buie then began to make his mark on the game, hitting a three pointer and making a layup to spark a 7-0 run from just under the 13-minute mark until there was 11:32 left in the half to give the Pride a 51-45 lead. Miles Latimer then stepped up big for Stony Brook, hitting back to back three pointers to tie the game at 54 with a little over eight minutes remaining in the game. The game remained close until Hofstra put together a 14-2 run under the 8-minute mark to walk away with the win.
Hofstra shot 30 percent from the floor on the night compared to Stony Brook’s 41 percent. Hofstra even changed up playing their signature 2-3 zone defense, switching to man-to-man coverage later in the game.
“They scored five times in a row when we played zone. Sometimes when your fastball is your best pitch, you [have to] throw a couple of curves,” Mihalich said.
With the win, Hofstra leads the all-time series against the Seawolves 23-5 and are now 7-4 on the season. The Pride will look to win their second straight game next Thursday, Dec. 19, when they travel to Princeton University.
“That’s a really good basketball team, they were picked to win the CAA (Colonial Athletic Association) for a reason … [it was] two good teams, but they were a little better down the stretch,” said Seawolves head coach Geno Ford.
Photo Courtesy of Hofstra Athletics
