By Joe Fay -- STAFF WRITER The Hofstra men’s basketball team battled with Towson (18-10, 9-6 CAA) all night, and came out with an 84-82 victory on a last second layup by Rokas Gustys. The Pride are now 19-8 overall and 11-4 in CAA play.
Right from the opening tip both offenses were hot, shooting over fifty percent through the first four minutes. Towson jumped out to an early lead, 16-11, and the Pride spent much of the game trying to keep pace with the Tigers. Using fast breaks started by a few strong defensive possessions, Hofstra stayed right on Towson’s heels and trailed 19-14 with 11:30 left in the first half.
Juan’ya Green, Ameen Tanksley, and Gustys all kept Hofstra in the game with six points apiece to cut the Towson lead to 26-25 with 7:30 to go in the first half. The final minutes of the half were tight, with a total of eleven lead changes in the first half. The teams went to the locker room tied at 43.
The Pride needed to limit turnovers in the second half, already having committed six turnovers in the first half. Green had eight points and four assists at the break, while Gustys had six points and seven rebounds, with Tanksley chipping in 11 points.
The second half became much of the same for the Pride, with six more turnovers and a very close game. Gustys notched his 16th double-double of the season with over 11 minutes left in the game, and midway through the second half Hofstra led Towson by just one point, 61-60. With six minutes left in the game, Green and Tanksley hit back-to-back three-pointers and gave the Pride a little breathing room, 74-69.
Battling foul trouble late in the game, the Tigers managed to come back and tie the game up at 82 with 56 seconds left. After an empty possession by Hofstra, Towson got the ball back with 34 seconds remaining. An offensive foul by the Tigers then gave the ball back to Hofstra with just 13.4 seconds on the clock. Coach Joe Mihalich immediately called timeout, hoping to draw up some late game heroics.
“The mindset was give the ball to Juan’ya,” Mihalich said afterwards.
His decision to let the star handle the big situation paid off.
Instead of pulling up for the winning shot, Green dished the ball to Gustys, who was wide open on the opposite block, for the go-ahead basket with 2.7 seconds left in the game. Towson chucked up a three-pointer as the buzzer sounded, but it was off target and Hofstra came away with the close CAA victory.
Green (21 points, 10 assists) and Gustys (16 points, 12 rebounds) both finished with a double-double to drive Hofstra to victory. Gustys’ shots were falling all night; he was eight of eight from the field. Tanksley (20 points) and Brian Bernardi (12 points) both hit some key shots down the stretch, capping off a true team effort for the Pride.
Hofstra (19-8, 11-4 CAA) will look for its strong offensive play to continue Sunday at 2pm when they take on Northeastern (15-13, 7-8 CAA), hoping to steal first place from UNCW, who holds a one game lead in the conference.
The Pride face UNCW in Wilmington on Feb. 25, but as Mihalich said, the team is trying to take it “one day at a time, one game at a time.”