Hofstra's dream season ends in CAA championship loss to Northeastern

Justin Wright-Foreman led Hofstra with 29 points, but Pride was unable to hold off Northeastern in CAA championship game, thus being relegated to NIT. (Photo by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)

NORTH CHARLESTON, SC -- As Mick Jagger so famously stated a half-century ago, you can't always get what you want.

Sadly, Hofstra has once again experienced that fate in rather heartbreaking fashion.

The Pride, regular season Colonial Athletic Association champions for the second time in four years, took the floor Tuesday night looking to win its first-ever CAA postseason championship -- and with it, secure its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2001, when Jay Wright was still piloting the then-America East program in Hempstead -- in a rubber match with a Northeastern team picked to win the league in the preseason.

Only 24 hours removed from a comeback overtime victory in the semifinals, Hofstra was unable to recapture one last dose of the magic that had propelled it to its winningest season at the Division I level, falling to the Huskies, 82-74, thereby ensuring that its postseason foray would come in the National Invitation Tournament, having wrapped up the automatic bid to the nation's oldest postseason event by virtue of its regular-season crown.

"You only get so many chances in life to do something like this," a somber Joe Mihalich conceded as the Pride was done in by a Northeastern team that made 14 three-point field goal attempts, half of those coming off the hands of senior guard Vasa Pusica, the CAA tournament's most outstanding player. "We had our chance, we came up short, and it's going to be one of life's lessons. We have to learn to deal with this."

"As far as the game goes, you've got to give congratulations to Northeastern. They were the better team tonight. They played two halves, we played one. You might as well cut to the chase."

Hofstra (27-7) led briefly in the opening minutes, but the first of Pusica's seven threes -- which came just over five minutes into the game -- gave Northeastern (23-10) a lead it would not relinquish for the remainder of the opening stanza, and sent the Huskies on an 11-3 run. The Pride would punch back and draw within three, only for second-seeded Northeastern to rip off a 10-2 spurt to extend its advantage back to 11 points. Hofstra would again creep to within seven, but a 13-2 Huskies stretch opened up the largest cushion for head coach Bill Coen's team, an 18-point edge with just over one minute separating the two squads from halftime.

"This game honors toughness," Eli Pemberton, who posted 15 points and seven rebounds in the losing effort, surmised. "The basketball gods just weren't on our side. Northeastern deserved the game, they played the right way two halves. We only played the right way (for) one. There's not really much to say on that."

Trailing 42-26 at the intermission, Hofstra battled back with the first eight points of the second half to trim its deficit in half as Justin Wright-Foreman -- whose 29 points led all scorers -- commenced a rally, and then -- after Northeastern had gone back up by ten -- ripped off ten straight points, capped off by a pair of Jacquil Taylor free throws, to tie the game at 54 with 9:13 remaining in regulation.

It was as close as the Pride would get, however, as Pusica drained yet another three on the ensuing possession to put Northeastern back in front to stay, then hit two more daggers from long distance two minutes apart to put the finishing touches on the Huskies' second CAA title in five years.

"At the end of the day, they made shots when they had to," Mihalich lamented. "We tied the game and Pusica hit a big three. I think we missed two one-and-ones and they answered, and it just gave them a little bit of life. We just didn't have it in the first half."

While Northeastern heads to the NCAA Tournament once again, Hofstra must now refocus on the remaining basketball it has to be played, even if the NIT is -- and may remain -- a consolation prize for a season that most argue deserved a better sendoff. Regardless, while Hofstra's players were inevitably inconsolable, their head coach did his best to put on a happy face despite the sobering reality of a dream season not being fulfilled in the most desirable of manners.

"It stings right now," he admitted. "It's not the one -- you want to be the one cutting the nets down and going to the NCAA Tournament -- but I'll tell you what: It's an honor, and you earn your way into the NIT. We've earned our way into a really, really good tournament. If you could get to the Garden, it would be an incredible experience for our guys, and we're going to do all we can to do that and see if we can't do something special."

"This team's a really, really special team. I feel so bad for these guys that they weren't able to get it done, but it's a special bunch of guys and we're going to lick our wounds, get our heads together, and get ready to play in a really special tournament."