Princeton, NJ — The Hofstra University men’s basketball team defeated the Princeton Tigers 87-72 at Jadwin Gymnasium in Princeton, NJ on Thursday, Dec. 19. With the victory, head coach Joe Mihalich passed Jay Wright on Hofstra’s all-time wins list with his 123rd win.
“If you just get mentioned in the same breath as Jay Wright, it’s something special,” Mihalich said.
Five members of the Pride (8-4) scored in the double digits, led by Eli Pemberton, who outpaced all scorers with 27 points.
“He played like a senior,” Mihalich said. “He played like a guy that wanted to take shots and make shots. He took good shots, he let it come to him.”
Fellow senior Desure Buie also had a strong game, adding seven assists and seven rebounds to a 13-point night. With Omar Silverio out for personal reasons, Stafford Trueheart played a season-high 18 minutes and didn’t disappoint, coming through with 11 points of his own.
“[Trueheart] got his chance and he delivered,” Mihalich said, “He, without a doubt, earned himself some more minutes tonight.”
The Pride excelled on both ends of the court, holding reigning Ivy League Player of the Week Richmond Aririguzoh to just seven points and six rebounds in 26 minutes and reigning Ivy League Rookie of the Week Ryan Langborg scoreless in 13 minutes.
“It’s funny, we scored 87 points and all we talked about after the game was our defense,” Mihalich said, “We thought our defense won the game for us.”
Sophomore transfer student Isaac Kante was tasked with defending Aririguzoh for most of the night.
“[Kante] neutralized [Aririguzoh] to start the game,” Mihalich said, “I thought he really, really dominated [Aririguzoh] tonight.”
The Pride led for almost the entire game, except for 15 seconds early on in the first half. After Princeton’s Jaelin Llewellyn hit a three-pointer to put the Tigers (3-8) up 5-4 just over a minute in, Kante responded with a layup to give Hofstra the lead for good.
Princeton made it interesting a few times, however. Near the midpoint of the first half, another three-pointer by Llewellyn capped off a 6-0 run that pulled the Tigers within two points at 23-21. The Pride responded with a 10-0 run over the next five and a half minutes to bring the lead up to 12.
With under two minutes to go in the first half, Aririguzoh hit a free throw to once again make it a two-point game, 35-33, but the Pride pulled ahead once again, scoring the last two buckets of the half to take a 39-33 lead into the break. They opened up the second half with four of the first five points to extend the lead to 43-34 just over two minutes in.
Ryan Schweiger made it a one-possession game once again a little over four minutes into the second half. But the Pride was up for the task once again, holding Princeton to just two points over the next 5:42 while building the lead back up to double digits where it stayed for much of the contest.
With the win, the Pride have started a two-game winning streak that they hope to carry into conference play. First, however, they have their final non-conference matchup when they host Manhattan College on Sunday, Dec. 22 for a 12 p.m. tip-off at the David S. Mack Sports and Exhibition Complex.
Image courtesy of Hofstra Athletics
