Preview: Hofstra faces tough test against UNCW

“A minor bump in the road,” said Hofstra men’s basketball head coach Speedy Claxton, following his team's loss to Towson University on Monday. “I’m not too worried. We’re fine. We just had a bad shooting day.”

If Hofstra’s performance against Towson wasn’t cause for concern, it was, at the very least, questionable. Certainly, it wasn’t the way they hoped to have played entering a matchup against the best defensive team in the CAA in UNC-Wilmington on Thursday night. 

Hofstra had its worst offensive performance of the season on Monday, losing by 21 points after holding a commanding 11-1 lead early in the first half. It seemed as if no matter what the Pride did against Towson, they couldn’t get their shots to fall. Aaron Estrada and Tyler Thomas combined for just 15 points in the contest, while as a team, Hofstra shot 14% from three-point range and a season-low 32% from the field. 

The loss wasn’t the Pride’s most lopsided this year, but it did halt the momentum the team had built up by winning their four previous games.

UNCW knows how it feels to see momentum come to a crashing end. Until last week, the Seahawks held the second-longest winning streak in the country (13) this year but have gone 1-2 in their last three games. Before beating Elon on Monday, the Seahawks fell to the CAA-leading College of Charleston on Wednesday and were then upset by William & Mary on Saturday. 

UNCW enters Thursday tied with Hofstra in the conference standings and will be another difficult defensive matchup for a Pride squad that loves to shoot the three. UNCW has stymied teams by holding their opponents to shooting just 30% from beyond the arc this year, the best in the CAA. Senior guard Shykeim Phillips was named to the all-CAA defensive team at the end of last season and will likely be a pest for Hofstra’s ball handlers on Thursday night. 

Sophomore Trazarien White has taken over the reins of the UNCW offense this year by scoring 14.2 points per game, doubling his total from his first season at the Division I level. However, no other Seahawk is averaging a double-digit point total. 

Thursday’s contest is the first and only between Hofstra and UNCW during the regular season. Last year, the two schools split a pair of games as UNCW defeated Hofstra 78-72 in Wilmington before the Pride redeemed themselves with a 73-71 win a few weeks later at the Mack. 

Hofstra and UNCW will meet again at the Mack on Thursday, with tip-off scheduled for 7 pm. The game can be seen nationally on CBS Sports Network, while WRHU will carry an audio-only broadcast on the Hofstra Alternative Web Channel. Live stats can be found on GoHofstra.com. 

Photo courtesy of Lee S. Weissman/Hofstra Athletics