By Kevin Carroll -- SPORTS EDITOR The Hofstra men’s basketball team used a late 12-1 run to hold off the University of Delaware on Saturday evening, and come away with a 77-66 win in a game that was much closer than the final score indicated.
Rokas Gustys finished the night with 18 points and 21 boards, just two points shy of what would have been his third 20 point, 20 rebound performance of the season. Juan’ya Green also posted a double-double, with 19 points and 11 assists.
Despite winning by double-digits, Hofstra found itself trailing for most of the game, struggling to keep up with a Blue Hens squad that came into Saturday’s game with just one conference win.
But with the game all knotted up at 65 with just 2:24 left to play, Green hit a layup to put the Pride in front, and Denton Koon followed with a three-pointer that clanged around the rim for what seemed like an eternity before going down.
Koon’s shot put Hofstra ahead 70-65, and the Pride iced the game at the free-throw line, hitting seven free throws to put the game out of reach, avoiding what would have been a big upset at the hands of the Blue Hens.
It didn’t look like the Pride was going to be in for trouble in the early minutes of the game. Delaware came out to take an early lead as the game got underway, but some hot shooting from beyond the arc silenced the Delaware crowd.
Hofstra went 5-6 from deep to start the game, running out to a 20-6 lead over the Blue Hens heading into the first media timeout of the game. It looked as though the Pride was primed to cruise past Delaware en route to an easy victory, but the Fightin’ Blue Hens lived up to its moniker, fighting right back into the ballgame, primarily on the shoulders of Kory Holden and Marvin King-Davis.
Holden, who would lead all scorers with 23 points, started heating up from deep, connection on back-to-back three-pointers to pull the Blue Hens to within five points of the lead. Then, the sophomore point guard found King-Davis under the hoop for a rim-rattling dunk to cut the Pride’s lead to 25-22 heading into a media timeout.
The Blue Hens kept rolling, taking a 26-25 lead on another dunk from King-Davis, who finished with 16 points. On the other end, the Pride couldn’t buy a basket, missing ten consecutive three-point attempts. In the last ten minutes of the first half, the Pride could only muster four points.
Gustys had two of those points on a late layup to put the Pride back in front, but Delaware answered with a Cazmon Hayes layup to make it a 28-27 Blue Hens lead, which stood up heading into the half.
Delaware extended its lead to as much as nine points in the second half, as the Pride were still ice-cold from the field in the early minutes of the second half. But, with just about eight minutes left in the game, Brian Bernardi and Koon connected from three on back-to-back possessions, and then Koon hit a layup while being fouled, converting on the free throw to put the Pride back in front for the first time in the half, 57-56.
From there, the teams dueled, trading leads and buckets, but the shots finally began to fall for the Pride, and they would continue to fall all the way until the final buzzer, where Hofstra found itself leaving Bob Carpenter Arena with the hard-fought conference victory.
The Pride (18-8, 10-4 CAA) returns to Hempstead for a Thursday night showdown with Towson University on Feb. 18. Hofstra routed the Tigers 90-58 in the teams’ previous matchup this season. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. at the Mack Sports Complex.