A strong opening 16 minutes of basketball wasn’t enough for the Hofstra men’s basketball team to pull an unprecedented upset on Sunday, as the Pride hung tough in the first half before ultimately slipping to Kentucky by a 96-73 score at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
“You have to pick your poison with them [Kentucky],” said Hofstra head coach Joe Mihalich after Sunday’s loss. “They’ve got so many answers, so many weapons.”
Deron Powers led the Pride with 18 points, nine of them coming at the free-throw line, where Hofstra feasted all day. The Pride went to the line 37 times on Sunday, converting on 23 attempts.
“My coaches tell me all the time that no one’s faster than me, so I just try to drive whenever I could,” Powers said after the game. “My main goal for most games is to get to the free-throw line.”
Powers, who had played Kentucky before as a member of the Hampton University basketball program, didn’t seem phased by the big-name opponent opposite Hofstra on the court.
“Whether we’re playing Kentucky or the [Cleveland] Cavaliers, I don’t care who I’m playing, I’m going into the game believing that I could win.”
Justin Wright-Foreman added 14 points off the bench, and Rokas Gustys added 13 points and eight rebounds despite facing stifling pressure from the Kentucky interior.
“He’s going to feel good about the fact that he scored 14 points against Kentucky, so hopefully he could build on that,” Mihalich said of Wright-Foreman’s performance.
The contest was the second half of the Winter Hoops Festival doubleheader, and after a first game that featured tight action between St. John’s University and Long Island University – Brooklyn, the Pride came out of the gates with gusto, hoping to make waves across the college basketball world against the powerhouse Wildcats.
Although the Pride had some trouble getting shots to fall in the opening half, shooting just 34.5 percent, the team managed to manufacture points at the free-throw line, as well as from some thunderous slam dunks from Gustys that whipped the Hofstra faithful into a frenzy.
Thanks to some early foul trouble, the Wildcats were without star point guard DeAaron Fox for most of the first half, and with Malik Monk unable to really find a groove in the early going, the door was open for Hofstra to hang around, and that they did, cutting into the Wildcat’s lead time and time again.
With just about four minutes left in the first half, Brian Bernardi found Ty Greer for a wide-open layup, shrinking the Wildcat’s lead to just 36-33. Following a miss at the free-throw line for Kentucky, Hofstra had a chance to cut the lead to just a single point, but Ty Greer couldn’t connect on a jumper, and the Wildcats were able to knock down a pair at the charity stripe to push the lead back to five.
From there, the wheels fell off for the Pride, as a pair of line violations, combined with poor shooting and turnovers led to a 12-0 Wildcat run to close out the first half. Heading into the break, Kentucky was able to stretch its lead to 48-33.
“I’d love to have those last few minutes in the first half back,” Mihalich said.
That brief first-half surge was all the Pride was able to muster, as the Wildcats began to flex their collective muscle and play as good as advertised. Malik Monk, who had begun to catch fire down the stretch in the first half, continued to make life miserable for Hofstra’s perimeter defense, finishing his day with a game-high 20 points.
With foul trouble limiting freshman phenom Eli Pemberton, and with starters Greer and Bernardi having subpar shooting days, the Pride just didn’t have the firepower to match up against this high-octane Kentucky offense.
The Wildcats were able to expand the lead to as much as 31 before Kentucky head coach John Calipari pulled his starters. Hofstra was able to cut the lead back down a bit, but not nearly enough to escape the Barclays Center with what would have been the upset of the year in college basketball.
In addition to Monk’s game-high 20, Isaiah Briscoe added 19 points and six assists for the Wildcats, while Fox chipped in 15 points and Edrice Adebayo scored 14 points and pulled in eight boards.
The sixth-ranked Wildcats improve to 9-1 on the season, while the Pride slip to 6-5 with the loss.
There won’t be much time for Hofstra to sit on this loss, however, as in just two days the Pride will welcome cross-island rival Stony Brook University in the annual “Battle of Long Island.”
Tip-off for that contest is set for 7 p.m. at the Mack Sports Complex.