By Jerome Bailey, Staff Writer
In their last basketball game in front of a Mack Sports Complex crowd, Pride seniors Cornelius Vines and Miklos Szabo helped the Pride to an 87-74 victory against the Georgia State Panthers. Vines poured in 18 points, 15 from beyond the arc, and despite injury Szabo played 17 minutes and hauled in five boards.
"It's warming to my heart, they both are wonderful guys. Szabo always showed great intensity in practice, and even when Vines was struggling, he never stopped shooting," said Pride Head Coach Tom Pecora.
Prior to the game, a video was shown to honor Vines and Szabo. Each had their share of moments during their time at Hofstra. Vines tied the school record by nailing seven, three-pointers against UNC-Wilmington and last season broke the school record with 72 three-pointers. Szabo‘s signature game was last season, when he scored 10 points and and grabbed 17 rebounds against the University of Massachusetts.
After a rough January, the Pride (18-13, 10-8 CAA) has now won six straight games and nine out of their last ten.
Junior guard Charles Jenkins led the Pride with 29 points, seven rebounds, four assists and three steals. Jenkins also nailed a career-high six three-pointers. Freshmen Chaz Williams and Halil Kanacevic each turned in solid performances. Williams nearly had a triple-double for the second time this season, putting up a stat line of nine points, 10 assists and seven rebounds. Kanacevic had 16 points and seven rebounds.
"We got healthy, I was too aggressive, and we were only dressing seven guys, and didn't have the fire power. But we hung in there and grinded it out. I think the younger guys, learned something from this season," said Pecora.
The Pride led 43-29, with less than 2 minutes to go in the first half, before Joe Dukes and the Panthers roared back and finished the half on a 7-0 run to trim the deficit to seven. Dukes had 22 points, five rebounds and two assists. After the half, the Panthers closed the gap to 49-47 at the 16-minute mark. Subsequently, the Pride went on a 14-4 run, to extend the lead to 64-51 and never looked back for the victory.
The seventh seed Pride's first game of the CAA tournament is a rematch against the tenth seeded Panthers on Friday night. The winner will face Northeastern in the quarterfinals.
Senior guard Cornelius Vines scored 18 points in his final home game against Georgia State. (Sean M. Gates/ The Chronicle)