By Frank Aimetti -- STAFF WRITER
In a preview of a future CAA tournament matchup, the Pride (19-12, 10-8 CAA) men’s basketball team will certainly hope the third time is the charm as they fall to 0-2 on the season against James Madison University.
Even more alarming is Hofstra’s inability to find quality conference wins, as their record against the four teams above them in the CAA standings falls to an astonishing 1-7.
“I think it’s pretty simple that the team that won deserved to win,” said head coach Joe Mihalich after the game. “They made plays, we had our chances and couldn’t capitalize.”
The Pride journeyed to the JMU Convocation Center looking to find a rhythm going into the CAA tournament. They were unable to achieve that, and really, much of anything at all. The same problems that have plagued the Pride all season again showed up at the most inopportune times to guarantee a loss against JMU.
With the Dukes seizing control of the game from the get-go, the Pride was forced to play catch-up almost from the opening tip. The differences in offensive and defensive efficiencies between the two teams were stark, as JMU seemed to score rather easily based on a motion offense and strong post play, compared to the grind-it-out, isolation style that Hofstra was forced to resort to.
Pick-and-roll coverage again seemed to flummox the Pride, as the defense was a step slow all night and at one point, JMU ran three pick-and-rolls on consecutive possessions, leading to three straight easy buckets inside. A major turning point seemed to be when Moussa Kone was sent to the bench with his second foul. With the Pride’s lone interior defensive presence and rim protector banished to the sidelines, the Dukes made quick work of Hofstra’s patchwork defense, blowing the game wide open in the process.
The Pride finished the first half with an icy 32.3 percent field goal percentage while allowing JMU to shoot 64 percent from the field. With such poor play on both sides of the ball, it was far from shocking that they ended the first half with a 16-point deficit.
To Hofstra’s credit, in a game that appeared all but over, they refused to give up. Coming out of the half with a new-found defensive intensity, the once-massive deficit slowly shrank down to something a bit more manageable. Several Hofstra runs cut down the JMU lead, eventually to single digits.
As Hofstra began to heat up from downtown, other pieces of their game also began to fall into place. A now-active Pride defense was forcing turnovers and converting those turnovers into points in transition. An Ameen Tanksley triple off of a smart dish from Juan’ya Green cut the lead to three and it appeared the momentum was all Pride.
On their next possession on offense, Tanksley was fouled in the motion of shooting and sent to the line with the opportunity to cut the lead to only a single point.
In what would prove to be a pivotal moment in the game, Tanksley missed both free throws. That was as close as Hofstra would get.
From that point on, JMU appeared to re-gain their composure and break the game open yet again. Only four minutes after the two Tanksley misses, the JMU lead was back up to 11.
While the Pride still refused to give in, it simply appeared that their rally took too much energy to replicate a second time. Even though the game never became a true blowout, it was fair to say that Hofstra wasn’t quite in it for nearly the entire last 10 minutes of the game.
JMU’s Ron Curry proved to be the difference-maker throughout the second half as he nearly staved off the Hofstra comeback single-handedly, en route to his 17 second-half points. His all-around game was too much for the Pride defense, as he finished with 20 points, 11 assists and five rebounds, missing only one shot from the field in the entire game.
With the loss, Hofstra fell to 3-11 when giving up over 70 points. Brian Bernardi, scoring a team-high 22 points, was one of the few bright spots in a depressing game for the Pride.
The Pride’s next matchup will be a rematch with the Dukes of James Madison, in the CAA Tournament, taking place in Baltimore, Maryland on March 7
“We respect everybody, we fear no one,” said coach Mihalich speaking on the upcoming matchup with JMU in the CAA Tournament.
“It’s gonna come down to a lot of intangibles, between the ears, when it comes to [Saturday’s rematch against JMU] and whether or not you can get to Sunday,” Mihalich added.