Hofstra survives battle with Charleston, preps for tourney rematch

Aaron Estrada pulls up in traffic for jumper as Hofstra outlasted Charleston Monday. (Photo by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. — Speedy Claxton admitted he was not a fan of Hofstra’s final regular season game Monday, a rescheduled clash with Charleston, the Pride’s Colonial Athletic Association tournament quarterfinal opponent this Sunday.

But, like the veteran he is, he pulled his team through the matchup rescheduled from the first week of January due to COVID protocols, needing every clutch shot down the stretch to outlast a scrappy Cougar team by the final of 89-84 inside the Mack Sports Complex.

“It’s tough, because you don’t want to show them everything,” Claxton admitted, citing the impending rematch in the postseason setting of Washington D.C. “I dialed back the playbook and kind of just kept it simple, but it’s not an ideal situation. I really didn’t like it.”

“Charleston’s a physical team, so the biggest key against them is toughness. I thought we had that toughness tonight, and we’re going to need that same toughness on Sunday.”

Hofstra (21-10, 13-5 CAA) played a full 40 minutes with fortitude, feasting on Charleston’s inability to control the basketball. All told, the Pride forced 28 turnovers, at one point registering a takeaway on over 40 percent of defensive possessions as the transition game that has become a fixture of the past decade on Long Island ramped up at the most opportune of times.

“We got stops and rebounded,” Claxton said. “If you don’t get stops and rebound, you can’t get out. They’re a high-turnover team, so coming into the game, we expected that they were going to turn it over.”

However, there was one characteristic the first-year head coach felt needed improvement.

“The 50-50 (balls), man,” Claxton said of loose ball opportunities against a Charleston team that pushes tempo and predicates itself on catching opposing teams off kilter. “Our kids have to get on the floor a little bit more and we’ve gotta win the 50-50 battle.”

In the winning effort, Aaron Estrada — who scored 30 points in Hofstra’s first meeting with the Cougars — led all scorers with 28 markers, and in true Estrada fashion, supplemented his offense with seven assists and six rebounds as he fortified his case for not only CAA Player of the Year honors, but also for the Haggerty Award, bestowed upon the best player in the metropolitan area. No Hofstra player has captured that honor since Charles Jenkins won it three straight years, from 2009 to 2011.

“The next time we play them, they’re probably going to try to do a different game plan,” Estrada quipped. “The first time we played them, I had 30, this time, I had 28. I feel like they’re going to change the way that they play, but I’m going to play my game still, try to do what I do and provide for the team.”

“It gives me a big confidence boost. The last couple games, I was struggling shooting the ball, wasn’t really efficient. I never got too low on myself or anything like that, but this game really did give me a lot of confidence going into the tournament.”

And for a team two years removed from cutting down the nets before the pandemic halted the NCAA Tournament dreams that were about to become a reality, Hofstra has a simple goal of getting back again, starting with a familiar foe this weekend.

“We’re just focused right now,” Claxton declared. “We have a goal at hand. We want to be cutting down those nets, so I’ll give these guys the proper rest, get their bodies right, get their minds right and get ready to play again this Sunday.”