By Nick Bond
As many students prepped for home and prayed for Thanksgiving to come as soon as possible, Pride players suited up for two tough games in a five-day span against local challengers, the Jaspers of Manhattan College and the St. Francis Terriers. Thankfully, the men were able to survive a overtime nail biter against a feisty Manhattan team, 73-71, with a strong team effort, and improved shooting from the line.
The season home opener, on Nov. 17 of this month against the aforementioned Jaspers, was a pitched back-and-forth battle between two solid Empire states squads. Hofstra and Manhattan exchanged tough defensive possessions for much of first eighth of the game, with the two teams combining for only 15 points in the first five minutes. Scoring for the men opened up soon after senior Guard Antoine Agudio nailed a signature 3-pointer, part of his game-high 30 points, to put his team ahead 10-8. Shots began to fall for the team, and they found themselves sprinting out to a 10-point lead with around five minutes left in the half.
However, much like the rest of the season has went for the pride, the end of the first half would prove to be a major problem as the team allowed the scrappy Jaspers squad claw their way back into the game, which they did by using the foul line to cut the lead down to three to end the half.
The second half began much in the same way the first did, as the teams combined for a even paltrier 7 points in the first five minutes of the period, but this time it was the Jaspers who would pick up the scoring, pacing out to a 4 point lead after an 11-5 run. From this point on, the teams would exchange foul shots and jumpers as the clock inched closer and closer to triple zeros.
With under a minute left, Manhattan found itself behind two after clutch free throws by Pride frosh phenomenon Charles Jenkins, who was a perfect 4 of 4 from the line as part of his 19-point performance.
With the game seemingly thought to be in hand, the Lions' Den was roaring loudly, only to be silenced abruptly when, seemingly out of nowhere, Manhattan Guard Devon Austin tipped in a rebound to send the game into overtime.
Thankfully for the men of the Pride, overtime broke with the pattern set forth by the previous two periods, as the two teams, apparently aware of the truncated nature of the stanza, alternated putting points on the board until the Pride was finally able to pull away with superb work form the charity stripe. The men finally clinched the game with two final foul shots by Charles Jenkins to put them ahead by four in the final 2 seconds, which would prove to be the final nail in Manhattan's coffin, as they could only muster a two-point desperation jump shot to end the game, downed by the Pride of Hofstra 73-71.
