HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. – The field goal shooting was mostly foul, but the Hofstra’s Pride’s foul shooting in a literal sense made the difference at the David S. Mack Sports and Exhibition Complex on Saturday afternoon.
Junior guards Jason Rivera-Torres (30 points on 9-for-19 shooting) and Andrew Ball (13 points on 5-for-9 shooting) did all they could for the Monmouth Hawks, but their teammates shot just 5-for-29.
Meanwhile, no one shot better for Hofstra than little-used junior guard A.J. Wills (five points on modest 2-for-5 shooting) as the Pride improbably found a way to win its eighth straight game while staying perfect (4-0) in the Coastal Athletic Association with a 67-64 overtime win despite shooting a season-low 27.1% (16-for-59) from the floor.
As Hofstra (13-4) struggled from the field, the Pride drew 21 Monmouth fouls and shot 87.9% (29-for-33) at the foul line, led by freshman point guard Preston Edmead (career-high 24 points) and junior guard Cruz Davis (19 points).
Edmead was held to 5-for-13 shooting from the field, but drew eight fouls and made 13-of-15 free throws. Davis, who entered the game shooting 49.2% from the floor, shot an uncharacteristic 4-for-12, drew six fouls and made all eight of his free throw attempts.
“I’ve just got to trust my work ethic,” said Edmead, who always takes his time at the free throw line, to the point of often risking a 10-second violation. The work Edmead puts in helped the young phenom maintain his focus and block out the taunting free throw time counts from visiting fans behind the Monmouth bench.
“I’m in the gym a lot,” Edmead said with a wry smile.
Edmead made half of his six field goal attempts in the second half.
“He doesn’t let his bad play affect him,” Hofstra head coach Craig “Speedy” Claxton said. “He stays strong. He stays with it. He trusted his work ethic, and shots started falling.”
Besides the free throws, Hofstra needed some good defense, rebounding and one bucket in the extra frame, which came from an unlikely source.
Wills, who entered the game with 6:17 left in the second half, started the scoring in overtime and broke the game’s ninth and final tie on a right-corner 3-pointer, to put the Pride ahead to stay 63-60.
“He stayed ready so he didn’t have to get ready,” Claxton said of Wills. “It’s probably on me to play him more.”
Although Hofstra missed its final five shots after Wills’ 3-pointer, and nine of its last 10 (after missing its last four in regulation), Davis and Edmead each made both of their two free throw attempts in overtime.
Rivera-Torres (who drew nine of the Pride’s 20 fouls) scored four points in extra time for Monmouth (8-9, 2-2 CAA), but no other Hawk scored in overtime.
“That was a gutsy win,” Claxton said. “We were struggling offensively, pretty much the whole [game], but our defense picked [us] up.”
That defensive effort was led in large part by sophomore forward Joshua DeCady, who only took one shot and didn’t score in 20 minutes, but who helped slow Rivera-Torres down.
“He’s our defensive guy,” Claxton said of DeCady. “To play good defense on Rivera-Torres, we’re going to need that kind of effort and performance from him.”
After trailing early, Monmouth used a 15-3 run to take the game’s biggest lead (24-15) before settling for a 29-24 halftime advantage. At that point Rivera-Torres had 16 points on 6-for-8 shooting, but the Vanderbilt and San Francisco transfer was limited to 3-for-11 shooting thereafter.
Rivera-Torres extended the margin to eight on a 3-pointer 1:27 into the second half before Hofstra answered with the next 14 points (10 Davis and four from Edmead) to lead 38-32.
Eight points from Ball keyed a 20-10 response that moved the Hawks back up 52-48 with 7:34 to go in regulation.
Baskets from backup senior center Silas Sunday (eight points and a game-high 11 rebounds to account for the Pride’s 49-38 rebounding advantage) started and closed a 10-2 Hofstra spurt that forged the Pride ahead 58-54 with 2:27 left.
“We got great minutes off the bench from Silas and A.J.,” Claxton said. “[Sunday was an] unsung hero. [He had] 11 rebounds, and he held down the fort offensively and defensively. We’re not here if it wasn’t for Silas Sunday.”
A three-point play by senior center Dok Muordar (five points) tied the game at 60 with 50.4 seconds remaining before overtime.
Davis missed a driving layup about 23 seconds later. Freshman forward Stefanos Spartalis (scoreless on 0-for-5 shooting) missed a layup with three seconds to go, which gave Hofstra a chance to win, but a running 40-foot attempt by freshman guard Jaeden Roberts (two points) hit glass and rimmed out at the buzzer.
That, of course, set the stage for more of the same to end things – additional poor field goal shooting from both sides, but good Pride foul shooting closed it out.
After a Rivera-Torres step-back jumper made it 63-62 with 2:29 left, two Davis free throws gave Hofstra a three-point edge with 1:21 remaining.
Rivera-Torres missed a triple but stole the ball from Davis, drew a foul, and hit a pair of free throws to get Monmouth within one. However, after a missed jumper by Davis, Rivera-Torres (pressured by DeCady) stepped out of bounds along the left baseline with 5.1 seconds left.
One second later, trying to stop the clock, Rivera-Torres fouled Edmead, who coolly hit two free throws to close the scoring. The Hawks had one last chance to force a second overtime, but a half-court heave from senior guard Jack Collins fell well short at the final buzzer.
After barely surviving, Hofstra became only the second team in the nation over past 15 years to win while scoring at least 67 points, making 16 or field goals, and shooting 27.1% or lower.
The Pride’s 29 free throws were Hofstra’s most since ironically making the same amount in a 96-88 win at Monmouth on Dec. 15, 2020. Besides the foul shooting success, being ready to match Monmouth’s toughness was key.
“Monmouth is a very physical team,” Claxton said. “We knew that going into the game, the tougher team would come out victorious, and that was us today.”
“We knew they were going to be a tough team,” Sunday said. “I knew I had to be physical and to grab as many boards as I could and hold down the defensive screens.”
Monmouth head coach King Rice credited both teams for their toughness.
“[Hofstra is] tough, not tough [like] ‘We’re gonna hit you,’ but tough [like], ‘You’ve gotta do what you’re supposed to do every time or Hofstra will beat the skin off of you,’ and today, we were tough,” Rice said.
As the Pride seeks its ninth straight win and hopes to stay unbeaten in the CAA, it has the first of two battles of Long Island this season at Stony Brook on Thursday. Claxton is hoping for much more down the line.
“The team is just coming together,” he said. “Everybody knows their roles, and they’re kind of playing that to perfection right now. As long as everybody stays within themselves and stays within their roles, I think we give ourselves a good chance night in and night out.”
After the way Hofstra beat Monmouth, that may even include the rare day when the Pride can’t shoot.
