Hofstra’s defense shines again as Pride takes CAA tourney opener

Jaquan Carlos engineered Hofstra’s defensive stand to end first half, which lifted Pride’s offense in CAA tournament quarterfinals against Delaware. (Photo by Evan Bernstein/Hofstra Athletics)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Speedy Claxton has heralded the experience of his Hofstra roster throughout the season, harping on the continuity within his locker room and touting its status as a vital asset as the year has gone on.

Part of that familiarity extends to in-game situations and what his players would need to do in order to find ways to win, especially in a setting that has become to the Pride what windmills were to Don Quixote. So it stood to reason that Hofstra pulled out an old standby in Sunday’s Coastal Athletic Association quarterfinal to steer it to victory, its deceptive and stout defense.

“When you’re in these types of situations, your offense is going to come and go,” Claxton imparted after his third-seeded unit secured a 73-58 triumph over Delaware that serves as a ticket to Monday’s semifinal against local rival Stony Brook, who needed double overtime to stun second-seeded Drexel. “You want your defense to remain the same. You know that saying, offense wins games, defense wins championships. We’re trying to win championships, so it’s gotta start and end on the defensive end.”

With six minutes remaining in the first half, Hofstra trailed Delaware by four, 29-25. In a slog of an opening stanza where newly crowned CAA Player of the Year Tyler Thomas admittedly did not have his best stuff, the Pride was forced to rely on other options as Jaquan Carlos and Dstone Dubar stepped up to lead the way. Still, no separation was found until a stretch of seven minutes and 28 seconds in which Delaware did not score a point, with Hofstra using the vise it lured its opponent into to fuel a 14-0 run.

“After the first 11 minutes of the game, Speedy told us, let our defense carry our offense,” Carlos recounted. “And when we guard teams like that and leave them under 60, that’s gotta be a goal for us going in to get three games in this tournament.”

In many ways, the scoring drought for Delaware resembled the second-half stranglehold Hofstra applied in January of last season against UNCW, one where the Pride surrendered just 16 points after halftime. And once the defense was turned up to 11, Thomas found his stride as Dubar continued a near-perfect night, which opened the door for Carlos to flourish on his own, which he did to the tune of 18 points on 7-of-12 shooting to complement the 23-point, 11-rebound double-double from Dubar and Thomas’ battleground 20 markers.

“When you’ve got two 20-point scorers like Dstone and Tyler, they’re going to open the game up for me,” a humble and grateful Carlos imparted “Shoutout to those guys.”

Hofstra had not played in eight days since ending the regular season in Charleston on March 2. The layoff was of mild concern to some, but for the coach, it was more of a fringe benefit that worked in tandem with his group remaining largely unfazed by what stood before it. 

“We’re an older team,” said Claxton. “We have older guys, so we were able to give them a couple of days off since the regular season ended and ease our way back into it. And I think it helped these guys.”

“We held the fort down. They made a little run there and there was no quit in us. We were able to control the game and we were able to push the lead back up. This team is old, we’re experienced. We’ve seen pretty much everything at this point.”