“Disappointing” was a frequently used word in Thursday night’s postgame press conference after the Hofstra men’s basketball team lost to the James Madison University Dukes by a score of 62-54. The loss dropped the Pride to 9-7 on the year and Hofstra now holds a lackluster 1-2 record in CAA play, with the previous loss coming in overtime to The College of William and Mary earlier in the week.
“That game should have made us want to play harder, be tougher,” said Hofstra head coach Joe Mihalich. “We didn’t do that, it’s disappointing.”
Hofstra put up only 54 points after averaging 78.5 points per game this year. A big reason for the lack of points was the poor shooting. The Pride shot just 34 percent from the field, compared to the Dukes 52 percent.
Beyond the arc, Hofstra only connected on 25 percent of the shots it took. The Pride is now 0-5 when shooting below 30 percent from three-point range.
Another area the Pride had issues in was turnovers. The Pride gave the ball up 14 times throughout the game and the Dukes took advantage of Hofstra’s mistakes, scoring 13 points off Hofstra turnovers.
“We just turned the ball over way too much,” said sophomore guard Justin Wright-Foreman.
Although he turned the ball over four times, Wright-Foreman was one of the few bright spots for Hofstra on Thursday night. He scored a game-high 25 points, including four three-point shots.
The Pride overcame two scoreless stretched that lasted over four minutes each and ended the first half on a positive note with a small surge to tie the game at 33.
The Dukes came out in the second half ready to play and scored the first seven points of the half. They never looked back as the Pride kept it close, but could never take the lead in the second half.
Wright-Foreman had trouble describing what had gone wrong for the Pride, particularly in the second half.
“We were just playing basketball at one point, and next thing you know rebounds were coming off, we weren’t getting them, 50/50 balls, not getting them, I really can’t say,” Wright-Foreman said.
After the game, Mihalich could not pinpoint exactly why the Pride performed so poorly in the matchup.
“It was probably a little bit of everything,” Mihalich said. “It was a tough loss, they were more physical, it was a little bit of everything. But those are all excuses. We have nobody to blame but ourselves.”
“My only prayer for the night is that [the players] feel the same as me,” Mihalich added. “That they’re as angry as I am, they’re as frustrated as I am, and they want to do something about it.”
“We’re going to find out if we’re a good team,” Mihalich said of the upcoming road trip for the Pride.
Hofstra’s next three games are on the road, starting this Saturday when the Pride travels south to face The College of Charleston in a must-win CAA contest.