The Hofstra men’s basketball team will look to try make it two in a row Tuesday when the Pride continues the Gulf Coast Showcase versus the University of Vermont. In the first game of this tournament, Hofstra narrowly escaped with a victory, winning 92-90 over Bradley University. The lead man, Deron Powers lifted the Pride to their second win by knocking down key free throws and hitting the game-winning shot at the buzzer to send the Braves to the loser’s bracket.
Consistency has been a huge missing factor for the Pride early on this season. Not only has the shooting been extremely inconsistent, but the defense has been, at times, off and on as well.
The Pride has put up some underwhelming performances up early on this season. They barely escaped their home opener by winning just by two points to Coppin State.
Hofstra then followed up that win with a heartbreaking loss to Sacred Heart, where they blew an eight-point lead with 1:30 left to go. Next matchup against Manhattan did not go much better. The Jaspers came out firing early and secured an easy 14-point win.
Although the Pride is an extremely young team, figuring out how to play together is extremely important moving forward. Vermont is no easy matchup either.
The Catamounts are coming off an impressive 60-59 win over Wofford. They stand at 4-1 on the season, with their only loss coming against the Providence College Friars.
Vermont’s main way of scoring comes from not just one person. Payton Henson is the lead catalyst, averaging just over 15 points, but shortly behind him is Anthony Lamb and Trae Bell-Haynes, who both average 11 and 9 points respectively.
One of the big focuses for the Catamounts is the defense. In all four of their wins they have held opponents to under 72 points.
For the Pride to win, more guys need to get going. Desure Buie has struggled coming off the bench this year, averaging just 4.0 points per game while slowly seeing his minutes decrease per game.
Look for Hofstra head coach Joe Mihalich to really emphasize playing a hard-nose defense against the Catamounts in the pregame. A win against this team would definitely build momentum and trend this team in the right direction.
A lot of questions still to be answered from this team as they will try to go above .500 when they play Vermont at 5 p.m. on Tuesday.