Hofstra dominates Manhattan en route to fifth straight win

Tareq Coburn led Hofstra with 22 points and 10 rebounds as Pride routed Manhattan for fifth straight win. (Photo by Newsday)

NEW YORK -- During its four-game win streak, Hofstra has begun to show signs that may not have been present in years past, when the Pride was just as highly regarded as it is this season.

And while Monday night's contest against Manhattan -- a team Hofstra had not beaten since 2010 and was winless against in five tries during Steve Masiello's tenure at the helm -- may be a small box on the checklist in Hempstead, it nonetheless served as one that was emphatically filled with a vigor not normally seen against the one-time Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference power.

Behind Tareq Coburn's second double-double in 13 days, the Pride collected its first win against a Masiello-coached team, thrashing the Jaspers in an 80-50 decision at Draddy Gymnasium that became increasingly one-sided as the second half played out, seizing control with a 21-4 run to begin the final stanza on the way to its fifth consecutive victory.

"I didn't think this would happen," head coach Joe Mihalich candidly stated with regard to the nature in which Hofstra (8-3) dominated Manhattan, a foe he had been intimately acquainted with both during and before his tenure on Long Island, the latter from his 15-year stint at Niagara before replacing Mo Cassara in 2013. "No one gets a team to play harder than Steve Masiello, so I'm surprised it happened. I'm not surprised we won -- I felt like we could win the game, I thought we were a good team -- but I'm surprised it happened the way it did."

"I feel like I'm getting more comfortable with playing with the starters," said Coburn, who eclipsed a career-high point total for the second time in as many games with 22 points, a figure the former Cardozo standout supplemented with 10 rebounds. "I just feel like being part of Hofstra has changed me. This is like my first year actually playing college basketball, so I'm ready to do some things."

Adding to the unexpected was the continued emergence of Coburn -- and to a lesser extent, Desure Buie, who added 18 points and six assists -- on a night where Justin Wright-Foreman, the third-leading scorer in the nation, was limited to just 14 points as Hofstra answered the textbook test of Masiello daring his opponent's ancillary options to beat his team, one the Pride passed with flying colors while allowing a season-low point total in the process.

"There's proof to that tonight," Mihalich said when asked if Hofstra could win without Wright-Foreman carrying the offense. "People talk about Justin, but it's hard to guard the rest of us. He only had 14 points tonight, and yet we still scored a lot of points against a good defensive team."

"Desure and Elijah broke the press," he added, citing the impact of Buie and Eli Pemberton, who were Hofstra's primary ball handlers, accounting for 11 of the Pride's 15 assists. "They inbounded the ball, they got open, they made the right pass at the right time. They were ball-strong, they handled the physical contact. Elijah and Desure handled the press, they really did. They got the ball up the floor to people to make plays, like Tareq and Justin."

Hofstra led for all but 29 seconds Monday, taking the first initiative on Wright-Foreman's split of two free throws before Pauly Paulicap put Manhattan (2-7) in front in the opening minute. However, two foul shots from Coburn gave the Pride the lead for good, and the advantage would soon reach double digits, reaching as high as 39 points late in the second half in an affair that left Masiello at a rare impasse when trying to assess what went wrong.

"I didn't recognize us tonight," he said of the Jaspers' effort. "We just didn't seem to have our normal energy or our intensity that we normally have. I can't quite put my finger on why that happened, and I was very surprised by our lack thereof in those areas. I was more surprised with our lack of intensity and urgency that we showed tonight, but it's part of college basketball and it's something I haven't seen a lot from this team, but we'll definitely fix it."

"I don't think we did a good job on anyone tonight. I don't think we took anything away. That was a team that looked like they never beat Manhattan, and they were coming in and they understood what they needed to do to beat Manhattan, and I don't think we understood that. I don't think we understood what they were playing for tonight."

Jalen Ray added 13 points off the bench for Hofstra, who carries its surge into Suffolk County when it visits local rival Stony Brook one week from Wednesday, and perhaps the biggest reason for the hot streak is that of its newest star, who brings an energy and balance to this year's team that may have been lacking previously.

"He's making everybody better," Mihalich said of Coburn. "He brings energy. Some people work hard and some people play hard, and some people do both. And we've got a team full of guys that do both. These guys work hard and they play hard, and that's a great combination right there."