Brian Bernardi, Juan'ya Green pace Hofstra upset of Florida State

After Hofstra left its chilly campus to go check out the tropics, Pride coach Joe Mihalich found himself worrying about the change of scenery causing a loss of focus.

"This place," he said, "is almost too nice."

His concerns were unfounded, though. Hofstra was more than ready to earn its biggest win in years.

Brian Bernardi scored 19 of his 24 points in the first half and shot 6-for-8 from three-point range yesterday as the Pride stunned Florida State, 82-77, in the opening round of the Paradise Jam.

Bernardi was 8-for-10 from the floor and is 14-for-21 from three-point range this season for the Pride (3-0), off to its best start since the 2004-05 club started 9-0. Hofstra will face DePaul or South Carolina tomorrow.

The Pride had lost its last 14 games against teams from major conferences dating to 2006. Hofstra hadn't beaten an Atlantic Coast Conference opponent since 1998.

"It's great for our program," Bernardi said. "We worked so hard this summer and it just means everything to us."

Hofstra's Juan'ya Green scored 17 points -- including three free throws in the final 24 seconds -- and had seven assists, three steals and three rebounds. Denton Koon added 15 points, nine rebounds and three assists and Ameen Tanksley had 14 points. Rokas Gustys added eight points and 11 rebounds.

The Pride's lead was trimmed to a single point on three different occasions in the second half, but Hofstra led for the game's final 27 minutes.

"We have great respect for anybody we play," Mihalich said. "But to play an ACC team like Florida State -- not just an ACC team, but a good ACC team -- to get a win like this . . . quite frankly, this is probably the one we've been looking for to really get us over the hump."

Malik Beasley led the Seminoles (2-1) with 25 points, 18 in the second half. He was 4-for-8 from three-point range; the rest of the Seminoles were 2-for-17 from long range.

Boris Bojanovsky and Devon Bookert each scored 11 for Florida State and Xavier Rathan-Mayes added 10. The Seminoles took a 12-6 lead, but the rest of the day belonged to Hofstra.

"Our guys, they want this kind of a challenge," Mihalich said. "It's why they work so hard."-- AP