UMass just too much for Hofstra
Darlinstone Dubar of Hofstra goes for the shot against UMass at Barclays Center on Sunday. Credit: Louis lanzano
The Hofstra men’s basketball world tour hit Brooklyn on Sunday night, more than a stone’s throw from Hempstead but still closer to home than the Pride have been in nearly a month.
Hofstra fell to the University of Massachusetts, 71-56, at Barclays Center in the Basketball Hall of Fame Invitational.
Darlinstone Dubar scored 13 points and Warren Williams had 12 for Hofstra (6-5), which shot 34% from the field and 29% from three-point range.
It was yet another tough opponent for the Pride, who are in the midst of a countrywide non-conference schedule. UMass (8-2) is off to its best start since the 2013-14 season.
With the score tied at 38 early in the second half, UMass went on a 14-5 run and took a 52-43 lead with 9:42 remaining. Dyondre Dominguez’s contested layup with 7:59 left put UMass ahead 56-43.
What was a close contest for the first three quarters of the game was decidedly not in the final 10 minutes.
“It was a lack of toughness,” coach Speedy Claxton said. “We didn’t stick to the game plan. We knew we had to limit our turnovers to keep them out of transition and we knew we had to box out, and we didn’t. It was a combination of all those things.
“I thought we had a great game plan coming into the game, limit our turnovers and limit their second shots. The final 10 minutes of the game, we didn’t do that. That’s when they took control.”
As for the location, Barclays certainly wasn’t home — but it was close enough, for a night. Hofstra has played in Canada more recently than Hempstead, where they will return on Dec. 22 to face Old Westbury. They last played a true home game on Nov. 14 when they beat George Washington by five points.
Hofstra’s nine-game “road trip” concludes Dec. 19 in Tampa Bay against South Florida.
“We kind of had an NBA schedule to start the year,” said Claxton, who played seven seasons in the NBA. “A lot of travel, a lot of road games, which is tough for these kids. They’re not used to traveling like that. I probably have to take the blame for that. But, it’s tough . . . Teams don’t want to play us, much less at home. So we’ve got a lot of road games and we have to make the best of it. I’m proud of the guys. It was a tough stretch and they gave it their all.”
