Hofstra falls to Charleston in up-and-down CAA opener

Tyler Thomas led Hofstra with 21 points Thursday, but Pride’s comeback attempt was done in by late run from Charleston in CAA opener. (Photo by Lee Weissman/Hofstra Athletics)

By Jaden Daly (@DalyDoseOfHoops) and Jason Dimaio (@JasonDimaio1)

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. — Hofstra’s start to conference play was almost picture-perfect, until it was inevitably not, as Charleston started strong and finished stronger to collect a 73-61 victory in Thursday’s Coastal Athletic Association curtain-raiser for both sides.

“It was a tough night,” Speedy Claxton reflected as Hofstra (7-7, 0-1 CAA) surrendered a 12-point deficit to begin the game and would later find itself spent down the stretch after trying to cap off a come-from-behind victory. “I think we lost this game in the first ten minutes. I was telling the guys, the last five games, we had slow starts and we basically spotted teams points. That’s hard to come back from. We’ve gotta get off to better starts.”

At one point, it seemed as though the Pride would be able to undo the damage from the 16-4 hole it had dug itself against a Cougar unit which connected on six of its first seven field goal attempts, including four 3-pointers, to prompt Claxton to quell the momentum with a quick timeout four minutes into the contest.

The hosts would collect themselves shortly thereafter, regrouping with a flurry of smart and timely shots as part of a 17-5 run that cut Charleston's lead to just two points at halftime, 34-32. Once the intermission concluded, Hofstra sustained that momentum, picking up where it left off with a 13-5 spurt to open a 45-39 lead that became its largest of the evening.

“We were guarding,” Claxton said of Hofstra’s defense as the Pride mounted its rally. “We were guarding off the bounce, in transition, then we had a couple of communication breakdowns which led to some easy points for the kid (Bryce) Butler. He came off the bench and had a really good game for them.”

But for every run the Pride amassed, Charleston had an answer. The reigning CAA champions countered with six consecutive points to draw level at 45 apiece and eventually surge ahead by a 51-50 margin. Hofstra would then score seven of the next nine markers to stake itself a 57-53 cushion, but the Cougars slammed the door with a game-ending 20-4 run punctuated by Ante Brzovic, whose long-distance call in the middle of the outburst served as the dagger of sorts as Charleston ripped off 11 straight points to begin the telltale swing.

“Our transition defense,” Claxton said when asked what went wrong in the second half. “We know that they push the ball on every make or miss, and we were slow to get back and didn’t close out some of the shooters.”

“We knew they had a lot of shooters out there. We were well aware of that, and we tried to run them off the 3-point line and force them to beat us inside the paint.”

While Tyler Thomas and Dstone Dubar once again tallied 20-point efforts, with Thomas going for 21, to be exact, the outside shooting the Pride has hung its hat on continuously this season was largely absent. Hofstra shot just 6-of-30 from behind the arc, unable to capitalize on a 14-point game from Jaquan Carlos, whose offense was a welcome sight alongside the dynamic duo of Thomas and Dubar.

Hofstra continues its conference-opening homestand Saturday, when the Pride welcomes Delaware to Long Island in a 2 p.m. tipoff.

“It’s definitely a wakeup call,” Claxton said of the setback. “But there’s no need to press the panic button. It’s one game, there’s a lot of ballgames left. We’ll be fine.”