By Joe Barone – STAFF WRITER On “What I Want To Be Day” in Hempstead, Kelly Loftus put up an inspiring performance that would have motivated any young girl or boy in attendance to follow their dreams of becoming a basketball player.
Loftus dropped 21-points en route to the Hofstra Pride’s big victory over the Northeastern Huskies, 75-50, at the Mack Sports Complex on Friday afternoon.
The young and relentless crowd provided a well-deserved playoff atmosphere at the Mack for the Hofstra Pride who now move to 14-3 overall, and 5-1 in the Colonial Athletic Association. For the first time since 2003-04, Hofstra remained undefeated at home after seven games.
“It was a great team win with a fun atmosphere,” head coach Krista Kilburn-Steveskey said. “Our defense really set the tone early.”
Early on, the Hofstra Pride ran a smothering, press-style defense that forced Northeastern to come out of their comfort zone.
By doing so, the Pride generated a plethora of turnovers and other mistakes that proved too costly for the Huskies to overcome. Northeastern turned the ball over 17 times.
The Huskies’ 29 percent conversion rate from the field marked the 11th time this year Hofstra has held an opponent to below 40-percent shooting.
“We came out with a lot of energy, and when we’re running at a fast pace, we’re able to find each other and be successful,” guard Kelly Loftus said after the win.
Loftus started the scoring for the Pride after Northeastern struck the scoreboard first. That led to 14 unanswered points for Hofstra over the next four minutes to take a commanding 14-2 lead in middle of the first quarter.
Thanks to Loftus, who had 10 points in 10 minutes, Hofstra finished the opening period with the 22-9 advantage.
Things grew interesting in the second quarter once Hofstra allowed the Huskies to crawl back into the game.
Northeastern sliced the lead to six points, 24-18, when Kazzidy Stewart finished a 7-0 run with a jumper that put some doubt in the back of the Pride’s minds.
Before Northeastern could draw closer, Olivia Askin made sure the Huskies knew who was the deeper team. She cashed in on her only bucket, a three-pointer, with two minutes remaining in the half.
Although the Pride was outscored 11-5 in the second quarter, they held a 27-20 advantage going into the break.
While Northeastern battled the entire game, Samantha DeFreese, the Huskies leading scorer who averages 13 points per game, was a non-factor. DeFreese was held to just two shooting attempts and finished with a humbling two points.
Ashunae Durant put up an impressive performance on both sides of the ball. She finished with 14 points and she was the reason why DeFreese was invisible on the court. Durant limited DeFreese the entire time as she swarmed the Huskies’ leading scorer whenever she touched the ball.
“Ashunae did a great job guarding DeFreese,” said Kilburn-Steveskey. “[DeFreese] has proven she has a hot hand, so, defensively, the entire team did a great job switching and talking.”
At halftime, Hofstra made the necessary adjustments.
The Pride generated a commanding 14-point lead in the third quarter after Darius Faulk converted a long three-pointer, three of her eight points on the afternoon.
With Northeastern not giving up, the Pride was forced into making costly turnovers that allowed their opponent to remain close. Both teams matched point-for-point to close out the third stanza of action with Hofstra holding on to the 47-38 lead.
The final frame signaled the end for Northeastern.
The Huskies had run out of answers to the aggressive Pride defense and effective Pride scoring with Angie White in the midst of a season-high 16-point performance, Sandra Dongmo corralling nine key rebounds and Asia Jackson putting up six points and two assists off the bench.
Hofstra returns to action on Sunday in another conference matchup against the struggling (5-12) Towson Tigers.
Due to the projected inclement weather and snowfall totals, Hofstra women’s basketball will now take the court 30 minutes after the ending of the men’s matchup against William & Mary. Tip-off in that game will be at 12 p.m.