By Mike Rudin – Sports Editor
The Hofstra Pride broke their three-game losing streak with a 79-69 win over the Delaware Fightin’ Blue Hens Wednesday, completing the season sweep.
The Pride improved to 15-9 and bumped their Colonial Athletic Association conference record to one win over .500 at 6-5, keeping the team afloat in the middle of the pack in the CAA standings – currently in fourth place.
“Those last five out of six where we didn’t get it done, we broke it down for the guys the other day,” said head coach Joe Mihalich. “It feels like we were far away but we weren’t. We just had to take a deep breath, keep our composure, keep our poise, get back to believing ourselves and really proud of our guys doing it.”
Juan’ya Green went from freezing cold to scorching hot – starting out 0-for-13 in the first half but turned the tables with 17 points scored in the second. 10 points of Green’s total performance came from the charity stripe.
Green and the team in general struggled shooting – especially three-pointers – in the opening minutes of the first half.
“It was a lot of talk about threes, how many we take and I get it. We took too many in the first half,” said Mihalich. “But if we’d stop taking them we wouldn’t have won the game. We won the game in the second half because of our three-point shooting because that’s what they do.”
Ameen Tanksley led the Pride offense on the night with 22 points as well as three rebounds and two assists. Brian Bernardi shot 5-for-11 – 4-for-9 from beyond the arc – for 14 points, along with three rebounds plus two assists.
The Pride started the game out on a high note with a 5-0 lead in the first two minutes-and-10 seconds of the game. But the Blue Hens slowly chipped away within the first seven minutes – to shrink Hofstra’s lead down to two points by the 13:03 mark in the first half.
The Pride retaliated and regained lost ground with a 6-0 rally to put Hofstra out in front and keep Delaware from taking the lead. Following the rally, Hofstra’s lead ranged between 4 to 10 points, as they kept letting the lead go and reeling it back in until it drained to just one point at the 4:27 mark in the first half.
After a pair of free throws from Moussa Kone to push the lead to three points, the remaining minutes counted down with Hofstra’s lead going back-and-forth until it extended to eight points by halftime.
The second half went off with a Blue Hens’ 6-0 rally but Hofstra strike back with 5-0 rally immediately following Delaware’s in the first 2:39 of the second half.
After the first media timeout at the 15:54 mark, the Pride and Delaware got moving offensively – Hofstra matched the Blue Hens 8-8 within a span of 3:57.
Delaware had a little fight left in them to put together back-to-back baskets to cut Hofstra’s lead to 51-48 with 7:58 left to go.
With their backs against the wall, the Pride put the game out of reach with a 9-0 rally in a 1:58 span to propel their lead to 12 points.
With six minutes left, Hofstra maintained their double-digit lead throughout the remainder of the game except for a split second when it shrunk to nine points.
The Pride’s largest lead of the night was by 14 points in the final minutes of the game.
“It was just important – I don’t care if this game was on Mars – we had to get a win tonight. We had to get that feeling out of our system,” said Mihalich.
Fouls became a big problem for both sides – Hofstra committed 21 fouls in the game while Delaware had 22 on the night.
Hofstra’s Moussa Kone and Rokas Gustys each compiled 10 personal fouls and were out of the game with the final minutes winding down.
Although none of the Delaware roster fouled out of the game, three Fightin’ Blue Hens – Kory Holden, Maurice Jeffers, and Barnett Harris – each came close with four fouls each by the end of the game.
The Pride scored 28 points overall in the paint compared to a dozen by the Fightin’ Blue Hens. Hofstra hit 34 points inside the arc, almost doubling Delaware’s 18.
Hofstra did not surrender the lead once throughout all 40 minutes of regulation, though Delaware tied for a measly 47 seconds.
The next matchup for the Hofstra Pride will take place back at the Mack Sports Complex against the Elon Phoenix on Saturday at 7:00 P.M. Elon University is currently one game under .500 overall and 3-7 in the CAA conference.
