Hofstra falls late to Florida Atlantic
Hofstra University men's basketball head coach Mo Cassara instructs his team during an NCAA game vs. Florida Atlantic University. (Nov. 22, 2011) Credit: James Escher
Florida Atlantic head coach Mike Jarvis looked at his point guard Alex Tucker and held up one finger. Tucker understood:
The game's final shot was his.
He made it count. It was acrobatic, something of a prayer, but Tucker's twisting, leaning, lurching layup trickled in with 2.4 seconds left, giving the Owls a two-point lead.
Hofstra attempted an answer -- a desperation shot that more resembled a swatted ball by Shemiye McLendon that swooshed in -- but the attempt came after the buzzer. For the second year in a row, Florida Atlantic stunned Hofstra, 62-60, at Mack Sports Complex.
In some frantic final moments, the rim that had been so unforgiving for almost 40 minutes suddenly looked wide open. Hofstra's Mike Moore scored seven of his team-high 20 points in the last 2:23, including two game-tying free-throws with 26 seconds remaining.
But in crunch time, Hofstra couldn't make the key defensive stop it needed.
"I don't think we did everything we needed to do to execute down the stretch," Hofstra coach Mo Cassara said. "That's a game we really should've won. We had a lot of careless turnovers, a lot of lackadaisical play."
Hofstra shot just 30 percent and managed only 20 points in the paint despite 20 offensive rebounds. The Pride's transition offense was stifled by Florida Atlantic's energy; the Pride failed to score a single fastbreak point. Point guard Stevie Mejia had 14 points and McLendon 12.
"We just seemed to not be able to make some easy shots around the basket," Cassara said. "I think it's mental for us. We're just missing easy shots."
No player had more difficulty than Nathaniel Lester, Hofstra's second-leading scorer, who missed his first 10 attempts from the field and looked exasperated as he made one basket in 13 attempts.
Holding Lester ineffective, Florida Atlantic never fell behind by more than five points. The Owls, who last season won 21 games and the Sun Belt Conference regular-season crown, also beat the Pride, 63-59, a year ago. Forward Greg Gantt scored a game-high 21 points Tuesday.
"I wish it was a better performance overall but we won," Jarvis said. "I'll take it."
Hofstra will look to rebound with three games in the TicketCity Legends Classic in Kingston, R.I., this weekend.
"Last year, we went on some stretches where we lost some games but we were able to bounce back," Moore said. "We've got a great opportunity this weekend."
