By Kyle Kandetzki – Assistant Sports Editor
Originally published 1/25/15

Considering the high-powered offense Hofstra has maintained all year, a 12-point lead at halftime seemed like an easy win for the Pride. But that was not so Saturday.

The James Madison Dukes completed a monumental comeback on Saturday afternoon on their way to a defeat of the Pride men’s basketball team, 69-63. Hofstra’s offense completely disappeared in the second half, while James Madison consistently knocked down their jumpers, dropping Hofstra to 5-3 in CAA play.

“It always comes down to what you deserve, and we didn’t deserve to win today,” said head coach Joe Mihalich. “We weren’t tough enough on offense or defense, sometimes it is that simple.”

Hofstra seemed to have the clear advantage over JMU from the start, but fouls and broken defensive coverage kept the Dukes in the game. A couple of threes by Ameen Tanksley and Juan’ya Green were quickly followed by back-to-back second chance scores by Malik Nichols.

At this point it was 12-6 for Hofstra, but James Madison continued to respond, as reserve guard Joey McLean was left alone beyond the arc to make it a three-point game. Shortly after that, JMU would counter a Dion Nesmith triple with six points in a one minute period to make the score 17-15 in favor of Hofstra.

At the midway point of the period, James Madison started to turn the ball inside, and effectively too. Within one minute the Dukes earned two three-point plays from Jackson Kent and McLean to make it a 22-21 lead for the Pride.

The Dukes never led during the half, but they strung together enough counter-offense to tie the game with 6:43 left on an inside shot by top-scoring guard Ron Curry. This is not to say Hofstra’s offense wasn’t playing well, as they shot 47% for the half.

But the final five minutes would be controlled by non-stop shooting for the Pride, as they went on a 16-3 run, including three consecutive three-pointers. James Madison would only score four points in the final four minutes of the half, giving the Pride a comfortable 45-33 lead at the break.

But things quickly took a nosedive for Hofstra coming out of the break. Following a three-pointer by Green to open the period, the Pride lead withered away from 14 points to a tie by the midway mark.

Following Green’s opening score, Hofstra would only put up five points the following ten minutes, while JMU’s guards went to work. Kent and Curry were the major catalysts of the run, completed by a Curry jumper to give the Dukes their first lead with 9:44 remaining.

Both teams would battle back-and-forth for the lead over the following minutes, but a Pride offense that shot just 24% in the closing period would relinquish the lead for the final time, as Curry once again picked apart the Pride defense to knot the game at 61 apiece.

Hofstra tried to turn to it’s outside shooting throughout the half to kill the JMU run, but to no avail. The Pride made just one three on thirteen attempts in the second half, and made none of their late-game tries, effectively knocking themselves out of the game. The poor outside shooting was in part due to Brian Bernardi’s tough day, going 2-for-10.

“We had plenty of shots, but we did a poor job when we got the ball inside the zone,” said Mihalich.

The Pride would foul in an attempt to get themselves back in the game late, but the offense continued to miss shots down the stretch on their way to a shocking 69-63 loss.

On a team typically sparked by forward Yohanny Dalembert’s play, the guards were the stars for the Dukes, as Curry, Kent, Grays, and McLean would combine for 55 points on 16-for-37 shooting. Curry had a career day by himself, scoring 25 points.

The Pride lacked a standout performance from most of their lineup, including Green with 16 points but on 6-of-15 shooting, and Tanksley, who only played 24 minutes due to foul trouble, and shot 2-for-9 overall.

“We didn’t drive the lane enough, [especially] after missing a lot of three point shots,” said Green.

The only positive from the game seemed to come from Moussa Kone, who had another efficient night with a double-double on 13 points and 11 rebounds, while also limiting JMU’s leading scorer in Dalembert to just seven points.

After such a depleting loss, Hofstra will need to quickly turn their play around when they travel to the College of William & Mary this coming Wednesday. William & Mary current sit on top of the CAA standings after defeating Northeastern on Saturday. Tip for the road matchup is scheduled for 7 p.m.