Hofstra went from up 10 to down 9 to win at the buzzer.  For the second consecutive season, a Hofstra opponent had the ball in a tie game, could have held for the final shot, and shot and missed too soon.  Northeastern’s Vasa Pusica missed a 3 with 4 seconds left.  Hofstra’s jacquil Taylor knocked the rebound to Justin Wright-Foreman, who crossed midcourt but was well behind the 3-point line when his shot hit the backboard and went in to win and give him 42 points.  It was the most points by a Hofstra player at home in Division I and the most points by a Hofstra player at home since at least 1963.  For games that long ago, there aren’t records of where the game was.

You can look at the links I posted in the first blog post, but I think this blog is a waste of time, and I don’t know if anybody reads it.  On Twitter I can notified when somebody likes my tweet and/or retweets it.  I might blog here occasionally, but I don’t think I will blog after every game.

https://gohofstra.com/news/2019/1/2/mens-basketball-mbb-wright-foreman-named-national-player-of-the-week.aspx?path=mbball is what Hofstra got from the U.S. Basketball Writers Association (USBWA).  Since the award started in 2009-2010, he’s the first Hofstra player and second CAA player to get it after College of Charleston’s Willis Hall.

Justin Wright-Foreman scored 34.  He made 11 of 17 field goals and made 5 threes for the second consecutive game.  He won CAA Player of the Week.  Desure Buie had 10 assists.  Hofstra continued to avoid turnovers with only 9.

Hofstra has off until they host Northeastern on Saturday.  After losing by 45 at Hofstra, Delaware won at Northeastern 82-80 in double overtime.

Hofstra hosted Delaware won by 45 after being favored by 10.5.  Hofstra led 48-18 at halftime, which would have been enough to win without scoring in the second half.  Justin Wright-Foreman scored 29 in 29 minutes.  Hofstra used all 12 players, and substitute Jalen Ray led in minuted with 30.  Eli Pemberton scored 17 in his return after missing one game due to injury.  Wright-Foreman made 5 of 6 threes, but Pemberton missed both of his.  Pemberton made 15 threes in his first 7 games, but in his last 6 games he has made 1 and 0 three times each.  Tareq Coburn was Hofstra’s third and final double-digit scorer with 12.  Desure Buie had 9 points and 5 assists.  Forwards Jacquil Taylor and Dan Dwyer shoot well, but rarely shoot.  Taylor made 1 of 2 field goals and scored 2 in 20 minutes.  He had 12 rebounds, which made him the only double-digit rebounder on either team.  Dan Dwyer did not attempt a shot in 11 minutes, and he had only 1 rebound.  Taylor averages 5.6 points with a field goal percentage of .654, and Dwyer averages 3.2 points with a field goal percentage of .609.  Delaware’s Eric Carter was averaging 19.5 points and 10.2 rebounds.  He committed his third foul with fewer than 11 minutes played, and he finished with 7 points and 8 rebounds.  Nobody scored in double-digits for Delaware, with Matt Veretto leading them with 9.  Ryan Allen and Kevin Anderson scored 8 each, but Allen made 3 of 10 field goals and Anderson made 1 of 9.  Ithiel Horton led all players with 30 minutes, and he missed all 10 of his field goals and didn’t score.  While Ray and Horton both played 30 minutes, Horton played 30:14 and Ray played 29:34.

Hofstra made 15 of 19 free throws (.789), had only 10 turnovers (which didn’t lead to any Delaware points), and had Delaware make 5 of 24 threes (.208).  Hofstra leads the CAA and is third of 353 Division I teams in free throw percentage at .793, has the second fewest turnovers per game in the CAA at 11.8, leads the CAA in opponents’ three-point field goal percentage at .308.  If a team makes free throws, doesn’t commit turnovers, and doesn’t let opponents make threes, it should be able to hold onto leads.

In a game between the bottom two CAA teams in some rankings, Elon led by 3 at halftime hosting Towson, before Towson had a big second half to win 77-60.  Steven Santa Ana and Sheldon Eberhardt returned from injuries for Elon.  Northeastern, who was picked first in the CAA in the preseason poll, won 93-83 hosting Drexel.  William & Mary, who was picked fourth, won 79-74 hosting James Madison.  College of Charleston, who was picked second, plays their first CAA game at UNC Wilmington tonight.  With travel partners, Hofstra and Northeastern switch opponents, with Hofstra hosting Drexel tomorrow and Northeastern hosting Delaware.  Hofstra and Northeastern will have played equally difficult CAA schedules after every weekend.

Hofstra’s big margin of victory makes them the best CAA team in the Sagarin in 88th and in KenPom in 90th.  In the NET rankings made by the NCAA, College of Charleston leads in 65th and Hofstra is 85th.

With second leading scorer Eli Pemberton and eighth most used player Dan Dwyer out, Hofstra used all 10 available players for at least 12 minutes of their 107-54 lead over Rosemont.  Rosemont led 4-0 before Hofstra went on a big run.  Justin Wright-Foreman scored 14 points in 22 minutes.  He entered averaging 25.7 points in 37.9 minutes.  Kenny Wormley, who played 24 minutes in Hofstra’s first 12 games, led with 20 points and 29 rebounds.  Wormley played in the first 4 games but none of the last 8 before yesterday.  His third assist of the game gave Hofstra a team record of 26.  He had 6 steals.  Desure Buie had 13 points, 10 assists, and 4 steals; without any misses, fouls, or turnovers.  He leads the CAA in free throw percentage, is tied for the CAA lead in steals, and took the CAA lead in assist-to-turnover ratio.  His .946 free throw percentage is tied with Oklahoma State’s Lindy Waters III for the best in Division I, which has 353 teams.  In the last 17 complete seasons, 10 players have had a free throw percentage that high.  .946 is well above the CAA record of .921 by James Madison’s Kent Culuko in 1993-1994.  Connor Klementowicz, who is a walk-on, had 9 points and 5 rebounds (which were all offensive) in 17 minutes.  He is a junior who had 6 points in 22 minutes in his career before yesterday.

It was tied for Hofstra’s fifth largest margin of victory, and Hofstra’s largest margin of victory since a 95-41 win over Hillyer in the fourth game of 1951-1952.

Hofstra got their best win of the season at Stony Brook by 71 to 64.  Stony Brook led early, but Hofstra led the whole second half.  Thank you to Jerry Beach at http://defiantlydutch.blogspot.com/2018/12/ill-be-quirky-suny-stony-brook.html for writing that this was the best combined winning percentage for Hofstra and Stony Brook before they played each other since Stony Brook joined Division I.  Justin Wright-Foreman scored 15 and passed Norman Richard for ninth on Hofstra’s career points list.  Hofstra decreased their free throw percentage by making 13 of 18, and in order to keep their free throw percentage lead Incarnate Word must miss some in their game at DePaul.  Stony Brook made all 3 of their free throws, which was the fewest free throw attempts Hofstra allowed since 257 games ago.

Hofstra is 9-3.  Their next game is Saturday hosting non-Division I Rosemont, and their next Division I game is on Friday December 28 hosting Delaware.  That will be the first of Hofstra’s 18 CAA games without any out of conference games in between.

Edit: Incarnate Word made 9 of 12 free throws to let Hofstra keep the free throw percentage lead.

Here’s the Top 10 in free throw percentage through December 17 after Incarnate Word decreased from .814 to .804 yesterday.  This is from ESPN:

Hofstra has played 11 out of their 13 out of conference games.  The last out of conference game is hosting Rosemont, which is Hofstra’s only game against a team not in Division I.  Hofstra will play its 9 CAA opponents twice each to make 31 games (30 vs. Division I) before the CAA Tournament, which will be in North Charleston, SC from Saturday March 9 through Tuesday March 12.  It will be played near College of Charleston, which is the southernmost CAA team.  Hofstra is 8-3 with no great wins or bad losses.  Here are Hofstra’s ranks out of 353 teams in Division I, with 177th being the median:

NET: 129th (3rd in the CAA), Strength of Schedule (SOS) isn’t given

RPI: 174th (4th in the CAA), SOS 327th

Sagarin: 105th (2nd in the CAA), SOS 328th