Hofstra rediscovers shooting touch in victory over UNC Wilmington

Hofstra and UNC Wilmington arrived at Mack Sports Complex on Thursday night bonded by a tie for second in the CAA, sitting two games behind Charleston in the seeding race and looking to keep pace. But Hofstra needed to shoot straight again to do it.

The conference’s top shooting team turned in its worst shooting game (32.8%) and worst scoring work (47 points) of the season in Monday’s 21-point loss at Towson. Aaron Estrada, the CAA’s leading scorer, and Tyler Thomas, the Pride’s second-leading scorer, were particularly off.

This time, the aim was better in Hofstra’s 70-46 win.

Thomas delivered a season-high 28 points, Estrada added 17, the Pride shot 52.7% and the defense allowed only 16 points in the second half. The Pride scored 40 to beat a quality opponent in a nationally televised game.

Hofstra (13-8, 6-2) grabbed sole possession of second. UNCW, ranked No. 14 in CollegeInsider.com’s mid-major poll, dropped to 15-6 and 5-3.

“It was extremely important considering we only play them once,” Hofstra coach Speedy Claxton said. “You can pretty much count that as two . . . And it was for second place. We knew what was at stake.”

After starting 1-for-5, Estrada finished 8-for-18, although he was 1-for-7 on three-pointers. The redshirt senior guard went 5-for-17, including 0-for-10 on his three-point tries, and scored only 10 at Towson.

“Mentally, I didn’t get too down on it,” Estrada said. “My coaches tell me, ‘You put in a lot of work in the gym, so keep shooting. It’s going to come.’ And that’s what I did to bounce back.”

Thomas rebounded with 11-for-18 shooting. The redshirt senior guard went 2-for-11 Monday and scored only five points.

“I don’t get too worried about the last game or the last shot,” Thomas said.

It was 30-30 at halftime. Then Estrada fueled a bolt from the gate, making two shots from in close and two jumpers in an 11-2 run that made it 41-32.

The Seahawks, who were paced by Maleeck Harden-Hayes’ 13 points, quickly cut it to five, but Thomas and Jaquan Carlos responded with three-pointers to make it 47-36.

Thomas soon hit a jumper in the lane and a three-pointer from the left side. Warren Williams scored inside to cap a 7-0 burst, and it was 54-38.

The lead ultimately peaked at 26.

UNCW shot 3-for-11 from the line and was held to 6-for-19 from the floor en route to that meager total of 16 second-half points.

“We locked up,” Claxton said. “We need to guard like that every game and we’re going to be a hard team to beat . . . We know defense wins championships.”