Hofstra’s valiant effort not enough to upset Crimson Tide
· Yahoo Sports
Hofstra’s meteoric season came to an end on Friday, as the Pride gave Alabama all they could handle for 30-plus minutes before running out of gas against the deeper, more athletic, hot-shooting Crimson Tide.
The Pride earned a 13-seed in the NCAA Tournament after a thrilling CAA Tournament where they blew the doors off William & Mary, outlasted Towson in a classic, and gutted out a hard-fought final over Monmouth. Their reward for their efforts was Alabama, one of the nation’s best offenses that features a potential NBA lottery pick in guard Lebaron Philon.
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Hofstra, though, has a couple of solid guards in its own right in the CAA Player of the Year Cruz Davis and his backcourt mate Preston Edmead, whose heroics in the conference tournament lifted the Pride to their first March Madness berth in 25 years. And, with Alabama star Aden Holloway sidelined on Friday with ongoing criminal proceedings, Hofstra felt like a Cinderella waiting to happen.
Unfortunately, the clock struck midnight on the Pride before they even finished their first dance. After taking a 10-point lead in the first half, the Crimson Tide upped the ante, finishing the frame on a 19-7 extended run before pushing their newfound advantage as far as 13 in the early stages of the second.
Hofstra competed, though. Physically, big men Silas Sunday and Victory Onuetu were up to the challenge against Taylor Bol Bowen and Aiden Sherrell, and wings Joshua DeCady and German Plotnikov did their jobs. Alabama simply won a war of attrition, grinding the Pride down with their physicality, talent, and Philon, who looked every bit the part of a future NBA star.
It was Philon who hit the dagger, for all intents and purposes. With the score at 71-66 and 4:49 remaining, the Tide hit a layup, got a Sherrill free throw, made a few stops, and set up Philon, who drained a wing three to make it 77-66 with just over three minutes to go. It spiraled from there, with an Onuetu technical foul handing ‘Bama two points and the ball before Bol Bowen added a 7-point spurt of his own. All in all, it was a late-game flurry that put the game beyond doubt, but failed to tell the whole story. Hofstra — for all their disadvantages — had this one within two possessions with less than five minutes to play.
“In a tournament like this, you pretty much have to play perfect basketball,” Claxton said postgame. “We didn’t do that. We didn’t play well enough to win this game.”
Friday spelled the end of the season that was, by Claxton’s own proclamation, legendary. Hofstra won 24 games, defeated ACC foes Pitt and Syracuse, and romped through the CAA Tournament. Oh, and Davis and Edmead became the first pair of CAA teammates ever to win Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year honors, respectively.
“We know what we did was special,” Edmead said. “We can always look back on that. We made history. I’m proud of my teammates.”
For now, though, it’s back to the drawing board for Speedy Claxton and his beloved alma mater. His life will be made somewhat easier (maybe) by the fact that Davis and Edmead can both return. In Davis’ case, he’ll have a year of eligibility stemming from a redshirt he took years ago; for Edmead, he has a full three years remaining, and his father eased transfer rumors last week by appearing to insinuate that Edmead would return to Hofstra for his sophomore campaign.
Of course, in this landscape, nothing is guaranteed. We don’t truly know what’ll happen until it actually does. Seasons, programs, and legacies can change in a blink.
But nothing can change what the Pride accomplished this year, even if it ended in defeat.