Hofstra extends nation-leading win streak to 16 with win over Towson
The Pride men’s basketball team stacked on another win, this time on the road at Towson University with a 84-61 route of the Tigers, following a road win against James Madison University a couple days before that extended their win streak to 15.
While big games came once again from Justin Wright-Foreman and Eli Pemberton, who combined for 47 points, it was the wide and varied contributions that added yet another one to the win column on Saturday.
Five players reached double figures, as Tareq Coburn (11), Jaquil Taylor (10) and Desure Buie (14) joined Wright-Foreman (25) and Pemberton (22) with the achievement. Buie in particular stood out, as on top of his shot-making efforts, the senior posted seven assists, six rebounds and six steals to round out an incredibly balanced stat line.
“He’s just such a leader,” Wright-Foreman said. “He leads both on the court and off the court. Wherever we lack he picks it up. He’s a spark and it’s always a trickledown effect; it comes from him and goes all the way down the team. It’s incredible.”
From the jump, the game was all Hofstra as the Pride scored 13 of the first 16 points, continuing the momentous streak of dominant basketball that has garnered them votes for a placement in nation’s Top 25 rankings.
Entering the half Wright-Foreman had a game-high 18 points, again proving to be the energizer that boosts Hofstra into a strong lead. Although Towson put together a small run to get within seven nearing the half, a pair of Wright-Foreman free throws and a Pemberton three-point play opportunity positioned the Pride 12 points ahead when the buzzer sounded.
The second half was much of the same: a continuous attack backed by a hounding defense that pushed the Pride 23 points out of reach of a drained Tiger squad as the clocks hit zero.
A defensive focus on Wright-Foreman allowed the Pride’s dispersed offensive attack to show itself with shots falling from all over.
“Everybody started to key on me, so it let everybody else go wild,” Wright-Forman said. “[Pemberton] was incredible, and everybody started picking it up. You can’t just key on me anymore, there’s a whole team of killers on this team.”
The Pride contained the Towson offense to 45 percent shooting, while holding all but two players under seven points.
Towson guards Brian Fobbs and Tobias Howard both hit double figures, with 22 and 14 points respectively.
Though the Pride’s tumultuous defensive attack played a great factor in Towson’s poor overall offensive performance, the Tigers hindered themselves greatly from the free throw line, shooting 57 percent while the Pride shot an extremely efficient 89 percent from the charity stripe.
The 16th straight win for Hofstra adds on to the longest active win streak in the nation as they continue on their undefeated conference run. The win also extended the Pride’s road win streak to seven which leads the nation as well.
“It’s a big number,” said Hofstra head coach Joe Mihalich. “The reason we keep having this success is because we’re embracing and enjoying it and we know this; it could’ve been over today. It might be over Saturday, it might be over the next game. So were going to enjoy it and run this as far as we can and as long as we can.”
The Pride will look to continue their win streak exactly one week later when they go into Boston to face Northeastern on Saturday, Feb. 2.
A win in Boston would extend Hofstra’s win streak to 17, moving them within one win of the program’s Division 1 all-time record win streak of 18 games that was marked in the 2000-01 season.
Image courtesy of Hofstra Athletics
