Hofstra moves to 2-0 after victorious seesaw battle with Iona

By Jason Dimaio (@JasonDimaio1)

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. — The Metro North met the LIRR in a top tier local mid-major matchup Friday, as Hofstra hosted Iona in their season opener inside a sold-out Mack Sports Complex.

There was no shortage of drama in this one, as Hofstra narrowly escaped with an 83-78 win to advance to 2-0 on the young season. 

Coming into this year, there were many questions for the Pride, one of which was who Aaron Estrada’s supporting cast would be? On this night, the world found out.

Hofstra jumped out to an early 22-15 lead, with Tyler Thomas hitting three or his first four shots from behind the arc. Darlinstone Dubar was his running mate, with nine points of his own in the first eight minutes. Once Dubar checked out of the game, Iona exploded for a 12-0 run to jump ahead, 27-22, forcing Hofstra to regroup. When the first-half buzzer sounded, the Pride entered the break with a 43-40 lead.

Hofstra controlled most of the final 20 minutes, despite having its hands full with Quinn Slazinski, who led the Gaels with 20 points and 10 rebounds in the losing effort.

“Quinn played great, but we have no bench,” Iona head coach Rick Pitino assessed. “It looked like he was dying out there.”

After Thomas’ fifth 3-pointer of the night, the Pride went up seven and silenced the well traveled Iona fans, bringing the Mack Complex to its feet as the Gaels looked gassed, but in the blink of an eye, Iona rattled off a 7-0 run in 55 seconds and the game was tied at 74 after a Berrick JeanLouis triple sent the fans behind Iona’s bench into delirium. The following 2:05 would be electric.

Thomas hit a circus mid-range jumper to put Hofstra up two, but Iona went the length of the floor and got a quick foul as Slazinski tied the game at 76 on two made free throws. On the ensuing possession, Thomas found an open spot on the floor and drilled his sixth three of the night for what would be the game-winning shot.

Make no mistake, this remains Estrada’s team, but when he has nights like Friday’s 3-for-10, 10-point outing and the supporting cast in Thomas (26 points) and Dubar (22) picks up the slack, Hofstra will win a lot of basketball games. 

“I’m really proud of my guys, especially these two,”

Claxton said of Thomas and Dubar. “Their plan was to stop (Estrada). He had an off night, we needed other guys to step up and Tyler and D-Stone did that.”