HEMPSTEAD, N.Y — If it’s at all possible for the Hofstra Pride to ask the Colonial Athletic Association to never again have the William & Mary Tribe visit its campus when the Pride is celebrating a milestone arena anniversary, it may be something Hofstra would like to consider.
Five years ago — even during what would become a CAA championship-winning season for the Pride — the Tribe throttled Hofstra by 27 points in the Pride’s conference home opener on Jan. 2, 2020 to mark the 20th anniversary of the David S. Mack Sports and Exhibition Complex.
Hoping for payback exactly five years later, Hofstra (8-6, 0-1 CAA) was once again humiliated by William & Mary (7-7, 0-1 CAA), this time, in a 74-56 rout on The Mack’s 25th anniversary on Thursday night.
Although the Pride scored ten straight points to lead, 10-2, and ended the first half by scoring nine consecutive points, the Tribe went on a punishing 46-8 run in between.
William & Mary started a sizzling 11-for-17 from 3-point range (12-for-21 for the game) while making 10 of 15 treys in the opening half, with six different Tribe players making those 10 first-half 3s.
“Hats off to William & Mary,” said fourth-year head coach Craig “Speedy” Claxton. “They came out and they gave it to us. To give up 48 points in the first half, that’s where the game was lost. We weren’t ready to go and credit to them. They shot the hell out of the basketball. They had some really good shooters and we knew that coming into the game. Even their non-shooters made shots tonight. When you have that, it’s going to be hard to beat them.”
Conversely, Hofstra seemingly over relied on the 3-point shot, shooting a solid 12 of 19 from inside the arc but only 9 of 37 (24.3 percent) from behind it. Three-quarters of the Pride’s 28 first-half attempts were from 3-point range, with Hofstra making only six of those in the half.
Claxton chalked Hofstra’s offensive struggles up to poor shot-making rather than the wrong approach, saying, “I’m not going to say we settled because those are the shots that they were giving us and when you have open shots, you’ve got to step up and make the shot. Our guys have to shoot the ball with confidence. If those are shots that the defense is going to give us, [we] have to take them.”
A lead that grew to as much as 48-18 late in the first half was cut in half at 65-50 with 9:47 remaining, but it took the Pride nearly six minutes to score its next points (on a pair of free throws with 3:49 left) as Hofstra missed its next eight shots (including five from behind the arc).
The Tribe got several players involved offensively, with only one William & Mary player (senior forward Noah Collier, scoring 12 points on 6-for-11 shooting) taking double-digit shots while the Tribe had four players score in double figures, led by senior guard Matteus Case, who scored 15 points on 6-for-9 shooting off the bench.
Three-quarters of the Pride’s 56 total shots came from Hofstra’s three primary starters, all of whom struggled. Junior guard Jaquan Sanders matched Case’s 15 points, but shot just 5 for 16, including 4 of 13 from 3. Sophomore guard Jean Aranguren had 10 points but was just 1-for-12 from 3-point range despite going 3-for-4 from inside the arc, and fellow sophomore guard Cruz Davis was only 2-for-10 while missing all four of his 3-point tries.
A Hofstra assistant coach during the 20th anniversary loss to William & Mary and one of the program’s greatest all-time players, Claxton scored a game-high 19 points in a 74-46 win over Boston University when then-named Hofstra Arena — informally known as “The House That Speedy Built” — opened on Jan. 2, 2000.
However, the former college star and NBA first-round draft pick and NBA champion chose only to look ahead rather than wax nostalgic. “I’m not really concerned about that,” he said of The Mack’s latest birthday. “We’ve got to focus on the next game.”
Addressing the issues from his team’s conference opener, Claxton said, “We’ve got to get back to playing hard and working hard, and it’s got to start in practice.”
However, there won’t be much time for that with only a single off day on Friday before an early noon tip at Northeastern in Hofstra’s CAA road opener on Saturday.
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