Without Estrada, Hofstra falls to UMass

By Jason Dimaio (@JasonDimaio1)

NEW YORK — Playing without Aaron Estrada for a second consecutive game as the reigning Colonial Athletic Association Player of the Year continues to rehab an ankle injury, Hofstra fell to UMass, 71-56, at Barclays Center Sunday night.

In what was Hofstra's first game in New York in nearly a month, the Pride was unable to use a local crowd to its advantage, as scoring was an uphill battle for most of the night without the team's best player.

The first half, while ugly, could have been worse for Hofstra. The Pride got out to an early 15-7 lead and had five different players on the scoreboard just six minutes into the game. Hofstra seemed to have been able to work around the Estrada absence early, but it was not to be. The Pride committed nine turnovers in the first half and was lucky to be tied at 30 at the break as UMass allowed an off-rhythm Hofstra team to hang around by shooting a dismal 5-for-13 from the free throw line in the opening stanza.

The second half got off to a promising start for Hofstra, as it hit back to back threes out of the intermission, but could not sustain the momentum amid a flurry of unforced turnovers, missed wide open shots and layups that seemed to occur on a majority of possessions. Just past the 10-minute mark of the second half in what was a rock fight of a game, the Pride had a three-minute scoring drought as UMass blitzed Hofstra for a 16-2 run and didn’t look back, opening the floodgates.

Without Estrada, Hofstra's reinforcements struggled. Tyler Thomas was held to eight points, German Plotnikov had three, Jaquan Carlos had five and Amar’e Marshall shot just 1-of-10 with four points and four turnovers. If there was a bright spot Sunday, it was Dstone Dubar, who is continuing his strong start to the season as he went for 13 points and seven rebounds, but more than one person to step up for this offense to fully click without Estrada, and Speedy Claxton admitted as much after the game.

“We didn’t stick to our game plan,” Claxton said. “We didn’t limit the turnovers. I thought we had plenty of good chances to score, but guys got to step up and make the shot.”

While the pit stop in New York was nice, Hofstra hits the road again, heading to Florida for a matchup with South Florida on December 19, the penultimate non-conference game on the Pride’s schedule before Old Westbury comes to Hempstead on December 22.