HEMPSTEAD, N.Y — Hofstra Pride head coach Craig “Speedy” Claxton doesn’t want to see the longtime rivalry with the Delaware Blue Hens come to an end but in college sports, football often drives basketball decisions, and thus, Delaware is off to join Conference USA next season.
While there’s still one more conference trip for Claxton and Hofstra to make to Delaware next month, and it’s possible the two programs could meet in Washington, D.C. during the Coastal Athletic Association tournament in March, Thursday night’s visit to the David S. Mack Sports and Exhibition Complex was the Blue Hens’ last as the Pride’s conference rival.
Hofstra (11-9, 3-4 CAA) made sure it was one that Delaware (11-9, 4-3 CAA) would want to forget as the Pride shot a season-best 60.3 percent (38-for-63) — including 48.1 percent (13 for 27) from 3-point range — and scored a season-high while handing the Blue Hens their worst loss of the season in a 93-68 rout.
With senior guard German Plotnikov (season-high 14 points and a season-high-tying seven rebounds) providing an early spark and opening things up, sophomore guard Cruz Davis very efficiently led Hofstra with game-highs of 28 points (a career-high), 10 rebounds, and seven assists without committing a turnover.
“I was just trying to be aggressive and do whatever it takes to help the team win,” said Plotnikov, who made his first three shots (on a jumper, a 3-pointer, and a layup) and scored seven of Hofstra’s first 13 points during a stretch when the Pride made seven consecutive field goal attempts.
Hofstra made five straight shots later in the half and had two instances in the second half when the Pride knocked down four shots in a row and once again, seven straight shots, to pull away late.
After Plotnikov ignited the fuse, Davis lit Delaware up with 17 first-half points on 7-for-10 shooting (while making half of his six 3-point tries) in the opening stanza before adding 5-of-7 shooting after halftime.
A jumper in the paint — where Hofstra dominated, 42-16 — by sophomore guard Jean Aranguren (13 points) put the Pride up, 17-13, before Davis scored Hofstra’s next 10 points and 13 of the Pride’s 17 during a spurt that gave Pride a nine-point lead, a margin that Hofstra reached five times in the half before taking a 43-36 lead at intermission.
Senior forward John Camden — who joined teammates, junior guard Cavan Reilly and graduate guard Erik Timko (16 points each), in double figures with 15 points — started the second half with a right corner 3 to bring Delaware to within 43-39, but the Blue Hens could get no closer than seven points thereafter as the Pride led by double digits over the final 16:27 after an Aranguren trey made it 53-43.
Cruz matched his prior career high (and reached 24 points), set during a win over Arkansas State on December 1, on a 3-pointer that pushed Hofstra’s lead to 63-49 with 12:06 remaining.
Junior reserve forward Silas Sunday — whose 10 points, along with 11 from reserve sophomore guard Khlail Farmer, gave the Pride five double-digit scorers — hit a layup and a hookshot to balloon Hofstra’s advantage to 18 points as Delaware couldn’t cut the margin below 15 after the 7:50 mark.
A 13-2 run, during which Davis scored his final four points, turned the game into an 87-61 blowout before the final media timeout before the Pride led by as many as 28 in the final minute.
“Everybody was just being aggressive and not shying away,” Davis said afterward, while adding his own approach was to “keep being aggressive and if they help [defensively], just make the simple play.”
Hofstra’s easy victory was much-needed after the Pride blew first-half leads of 18 points and 11 points, in a pair of five-point CAA road losses at Towson, and against Drexel, respectively.
“A tremendous job from our guys,” Claxton said. “The big focus was [to play for] forty minutes tonight and we did that. We had a great first half and then we doubled down, and had a good second half also.”
The straightforward pregame message, Claxton said, was “to keep playing.” He added, “We’re close. Those two losses, we were up at halftime, pretty big. We played the first twenty minutes, but then the second twenty, I don’t know if we relaxed or if we got comfortable, but that’s why the emphasis was [to] play forty minutes tonight, and we did that. I told these guys, ‘We lost but we’re close,’ and I think they saw that tonight, what we’re capable of when we play forty minutes.”
The Pride’s main staple this season — it’s CAA-best defense — showed up well yet again to keep the conference’s best offense in check.
“It was the No. 1 offense versus the No. 1 defense,” Claxton noted. “[The Blue Hens are] a very good team. I thought the gameplan was tremendous. [Assistant] Coach [Antwon] Portley, who had the scout for the game, did a tremendous job but it was the players. We gave them the gameplan and they followed it.”
Of course, good defense doesn’t end until the ball is secured and Hofstra did a nice job cleaning up the glass, to the tune of a decisive 38-24 rebounding advantage while limiting Delaware to only four offensive rebounds.
“Our defense always fuels our offense,” Claxton said. “When we’re able to get stops and rebounds, we’re able to excel in the transition game.”
Yet this time, the Pride’s offense was also far better than it had been in the halfcourt, as Hofstra reached at least 90 points for the second time this season after an eight-game stretch in which the Pride failed to score 70 points while averaging just 58 points per game and going 2-6.
A change in approach from too much dribbling and trying to beat defenders one-on-one in prior games to that of attacking the lane, posting up in that area, and shooting with more poise and self-assuredness produced far better results for Hofstra, which put the game away with nearly unstoppable 67.7 percent (21 for 31) second-half efficiency.
Referencing another sport that Delaware and Hofstra were rivals in (before the Pride dropped its football program in 2009), Claxton said of his team’s paint dominance, “We’re ground and pound. We’ve got guys that are really good post players and we definitely wanted to post these guys up and play to [our] strengths.”
Besides that, the other goal was, “Just to share the basketball and be confident shooting,” Claxton said. “We have good shooters. I don’t know if for some reason, they lost confidence [before] but we tell them, ‘Just keep shooting the basketball. You’re good.’ They’re all capable shooters and they work extremely hard on their shots, so I’m going to keep allowing them to shoot.”
Claxton believes that Hofstra’s prior struggles were perhaps more mental than anything else, but that didn’t occur against Delaware.
“They all shot the ball with confidence, that was the biggest thing,” Claxton said. “They all shot it with confidence and played with confidence.”
The win raised the Pride’s all-time record against the Blue Hens to 70-34, with the 104 meetings being most that Hofstra has ever played against another opponent. The series dates back to the 1954-55 season and spans five different conferences (the Mid-Atlantic, East Coast, North Atlantic, America East, and CAA) of which both programs were simultaneous members.
The height of the rivalry came around Claxton’s America East years as one of Hofstra’s greatest players in school history, when the now fourth-year head coach led the then-Flying Dutchmen in the same building (then-named Hofstra Arena) to a 2000 America East tournament championship win over Delaware as a senior.
The Pride repeated the same feat against the Blue Hens on the same floor in the 2001 America East title game with Claxton as a first-round NBA pick.
As much as those and other memories remain beloved for Claxton, the ex-star loved going to the Bob Carpenter Center, which hosted earlier rounds of the America East tournament during Claxton’s college career. The Bob (as Blue Hens fans have called it) will host the final regular season conference game between Hofstra and Delaware on Feb. 22, on the Blue Hens’ Senior Day.
“It’s sad to see them go,” Claxton said of the Blue Hens before taking a moment to reminisce. “That’s one of my favorite trips. They were a big rivalry for myself when I was here at Hofstra. It’s definitely going to be a sad moment when [we] go down there for the last game.”
On the possibility of continuing the rivalry through the teams’ non-conference schedules in future seasons, Claxton said with a bright smile, “We’ll see, we’ll see.”
Well before that last conference trip to Delaware, the Pride will have a lot more to focus on, starting with a quick turnaround at The Mack, at noon, on Saturday, as Hofstra tries to get back to .500 in CAA play against Campbell.
As Cruz and the rest of the Pride did in its final conference contest against its old rival, perhaps Hofstra can continue to follow the early tone started by Plotnikov, who said, “Every time, after a win, I get in the locker room and the first thing I say is, ‘Let’s get on a roll. Let’s get a streak going.’ It feels good to win.”
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