Long Island split gives Hofstra CAA third seed
· Yahoo Sports
HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. – Although the Hofstra Pride has the Coastal Athletic Association’s leading scorer and some other good offensive weapons, head coach Craig “Speedy” Claxton is under no illusion about what it would take for his team to win the CAA tournament and punch an NCAA tournament ticket in less than two weeks.
A perfect example was the Pride grinding its way to a 67-58 home win over the shorthanded Stony Brook Seawolves at the David S. Mack Sports and Exhibition Complex on Saturday night.
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“Sometimes, you’ve gotta win ugly,” Claxton said. “Tonight was gritty, not pretty.”
The penultimate game of Hofstra’s regular season gave the Pride (20-10, 11-6 CAA) its fourth 20-win season in five years under Claxton and avenged a five-point Jan. 15 road loss for the Nassau County school to its Suffolk County neighbors.
It also ended Stony Brook’s most successful run in a series that had previously been dominated by Hofstra, with the Seawolves (17-13, 9-8 CAA) winning the prior four meetings (Stony Brook beat Hofstra in the 2024 CAA semifinals and swept last year’s season series before winning the teams’ first encounter this year). Despite the Seawolves’ more recent success, the Pride holds a commanding 29-10 all-time series lead.
But the most important outcome of Hofstra’s win was that the Pride clinched the No. 3 seed in the conference tournament that will start in Washington, D.C., on March 6.
With graduate guard Erik Pratt, the CAA’s third-leading scorer (19.4 points per game) suspended for the game due to disciplinary reasons, there figured to be a chance to shine for the CAA’s top scorer, junior guard Cruz Davis (20.7 points per game), but Davis (eight points on 2-for-8 shooting) was held to a single-digit scoring output for just the second time this season. Davis contributed a game-high six assists but also committed a game-worst five turnovers.
Without Pratt, the Seawolves were determined and erased a 23-13 first-half deficit to take their first lead, 35-32, on a 3-pointer in the opening minute of the second half.
However, Hofstra responded with a 28-15 run over the next 13:18 to match the game’s largest advantage, at 60-50, with 6:05 remaining (before Stony Brook later got as close as 63-58 with 2:15 left).
That spurt included seven straight missed shots by each team, underscoring the importance of the type of defense the Pride will need to make a serious CAA tournament run when shots may not fall offensively.
“We won on the defensive end,” Claxton said. “[Our] guys got scrappy, we won some 50/50s, we took away their 3-point attempts, we forced them to drive the basketball, and we guarded them off the bounce in the second half.”
Stony Brook actually got a lot of 3-point tries off (36) but only made 10 (27.8%).
Hofstra attempted 17 fewer shots (taking only 48 total) and made just 18 (37.5%), but the Pride’s stingy defense held the Seawolves to just 29.2% shooting overall (19-for-65), as Hofstra improved to 17-1 when allowing under 70 points and moved to 12-0 when surrendering fewer than 65 points this season.
The 66.7 points per game allowed by the Pride this year barely trails Towson’s CAA-best 66.6 points given up, and at 38.9%, Hofstra is the only CAA team holding opponents under 40% shooting.
View Link“Some nights, the offense isn’t going to be there,” Claxton said. “The defense has to be the constant. Defense is the backbone of our program and defense has to be there every single night, because when we play defense like we did tonight, we give ourselves a really good chance at winning.”
“We practice defense the majority of [every] practice, so that’s what we want every time,” senior guard Biggie Patterson said.
While the defense was clamping down, Hofstra still needed enough offense to win.
That’s where Patterson (game-high 17 points), graduate guard German Plotnikov (15 points), and eventually, freshman guard Preston Edmead (14 points, including 11 in the second half) picked up the slack for Davis’ struggles.
Edmead – Hofstra’s second-leading scorer and the CAA’s ninth-leading scorer (15.3 points per game) — was limited for a long while, missing his first five shots, before making his last three over the final 9:33.
“Offensively, we kind of got bogged down,” Claxton said. “I think [Stony Brook] did a terrific job on our two guards, Preston and Cruz.”
Flanked on either side at the post-game press conference by Plotnikov and Patterson, Claxton said, “These two guys right here, they were big… they were terrific tonight.”
Plotnikov tried not to think about his worst shooting game of the season (3-for-16) in the Pride’s earlier loss at Stony Brook.
“It’s always the next game, next play mentality, but that definitely was in the back of my head,” Plotnikov said. “Even though I was trying to resist it, I was definitely trying to come out and make a statement. That game at Stony Brook was a fluke.”
With a reprieve, Plotnikov tried to show something very different right from the start, making a pair of 3s and a foul line jumper to start the game on a personal 8-3 run. He made four of his first six shots before missing his last two.
Patterson (Hofsta’s third leading scorer at 9.5 points per game) and Plotnikov (the Pride’s fourth-leading scorer with 9.1 points) each scored 11 first-half points while no other Hofstra player had more than three points before halftime.
“German got us off to a terrific start,” Claxton said. “He got us going, and Biggie came in and just kept us going… He came in and kind of held down the fort. That’s what we expect from Biggie. That’s what we envisioned when we signed him last spring. We need him to be that third guy, maybe the second guy. When he plays like that, we’re a different team.
“It’s definitely a difference maker. Most nights, Cruz and Preston aren’t going to have nights like they [had] tonight. When they’re having normal nights, and Biggie comes off the bench, and he gives us the type of performance that he [had] tonight, we’re really hard to guard.”
Patterson’s production isn’t all he provides. His usual high motor also has a positive effect on his teammates.
“When I’m playing with so much energy throughout the game, my teammates feed off that,” Patterson said.
Locked into the No. 3 seed, Hofstra – which might’ve dropped as far as the No. 7 seed with losses in its final two regular season games – can breathe a sigh of relief before concluding its regular season at home on Tuesday night against Drexel. The Pride will try to enter the CAA tournament 9-1 since a five-game January losing streak.
While top-seeded UNC-Wilmington will be the favorites to repeat as CAA tournament champions, Hofstra is now very much in the mix to possibly dethrone the Seahawks, having split a pair of very close games with second-seeded Charleston this year before the Pride led in Wilmington by nine points with under 10 minutes left in a narrow four-point defeat there on Feb. 14.
“It’s easier to win three [games] in three [days] than four in four, so I’m thankful that we got the double bye (to the CAA quarterfinals) and hopefully we go down to D.C. and take care of business,” Claxton said.
Plotnikov and Patterson will be honored as part of senior night this week but have their focus on the business left to take care of in the CAA tournament.
“Let’s go get a chip,” Plotnikov said.
“Let’s end it right,” Patterson said.