On Friday at 4 p.m. at the David. S. Mack Sports and Exhibition Center in Hempstead, New York, the Hofstra men’s basketball team will take on the Division III Medaille College Mavericks, a 1-2 squad from Buffalo. Hofstra, coming off a much needed 65-57 win over South Dakota on Wednesday, will look to have their first two-game win streak of the season.
The Pride will also look to improve on their home record dating back to last year, and a win today would make it five in a row at home since then. As for Medaille, there does not seem to be much that jumps out on paper, but Hofstra’s three wins on the year have only been won by a combined margin of 12 points. As for their losses, the opponents’ who beat them have a combined 7-9 record and their combined margin of winning is 30 points.
The Mavericks’ leading scoring is senior guard Johnathan Belton, with 12.3 points per game. For the Pride, it is surprisingly still 6-foot-4-inch freshman guard Eli Pemberton. Pemberton leads all freshmen CAA players with an average of 16.3 points per game.
As for the other star CAA standout, Rokas Gustys; he is looking to have another stellar game crashing the boards, coming off a 10 point, 26 rebound effort against South Dakota.
The biggest standout issue for the Pride has been inconsistent play through both halves. Hofstra this season is outscored by a combined 35 points against opponents in the first half, while outscoring opponents by 17 in the second half in all six games this year.
The good news for the Pride is that Medaille’s two losses this year have both been in heavy part to blowing first half leads and getting outscored and outplayed in the second half. If Coach Mihalich wants his team to push past the .500 mark today, he will need consistent play from Pemberton, Gustys and the rest of his underrated and deep Hofstra roster.