MBB: Game 25 - vs. Northeastern (Sat 2/8, 4:00 pm)

[Wags]

As well as Kante played on the road, he has been invisible this game. He needs to start imposing his will a little more to open things up for the guards.

[Wags]

12:13 - Roland forced to the bench with his 4th PF
12:03 - Offensive foul on NU. PFs: NU 9, HU 1.

Lead is down to 50-44, but with Roland out and the foul situation above, HU in good shape for a comeback. Have to take advantage of that now.

[Wags]

Up, 68-60. Buie with a big second half. And once again, the DEFENSE has come up big. Consistent for them this year.

Earlier 20-4 run to erase NU's 20-4 start to the game.

Elon up 8 at CofC with 2 left... HU could be in 1st place today.

[EvanJ]

Northeastern made two threes after offensive rebounds and got within 1. After Buie made 2 free throws, Pemberton fouled Jason Strong with 2.1 seconds left so Northeastern couldn't make a three to tie. Strong made the first free throw, tried to trick us by intentionally missing off the bottom of the rim, but he moved too soon for a lane violation. Ray made 2 free throws for the final score of 75-71. With 5:07 left, Coburn fouled out for the first time in his career. I'm shocked that no guards played off the bench. We used seven players. Both of our games against Northeastern had the away team blow a 16 point lead. I'll post more later, but first I'll post about how we moved up to first.

Elon led for 33:19. Elon led by 2 at halftime before Charleston took their largest lead at 38-34 with 17:11 left. Elon went up 6, Charleston tied it, and Elon went up 11 with 4:45 left. The lead ranged from 6 to 12 after that, and Elon won 72-65. Riller had 26 points, 8 rebounds, and 3 assists. He shot twos well, but shot threes 1-7. Marcus Sheffield II led all scorers with 31. He made 4 of 6 threes, but 4 of 13 twos, and Elon shot threes better than twos. He made 11 free throws (tied with Ray for the most by a CAA player in today's four day games), had 12 rebounds (second among CAA players to 14 but Delaware's Justyn Mutts), and had 5 assists (tied with JMU's Deshon Parker for the most by a CAA player).

[Wags]

Today was the third time this season -- all within their past six games -- that Northeastern blew a 16-point lead and lost.

The Huskies (11-13, 5-7 CAA), which started 4-2 in the CAA play, have lost five of six (including their last four) over that stretch.

I'm guessing Bill Coen's not getting the COY this year.

[Flying Dutchmen]

Awesome win, strange game, lucky to be 2-0 vs Northeastern this year. Refereeing was brutal, probably helped us more than Northeastern, but questionable calls on both sides.

Northeastern's a solid team, but I think they miss Murphy inside, and they really lack a secondary scorer behind Roland. I thought we actually played consistent throughout the game, the shots just didn't fall the first 7 or so minutes, and we lost Kante fast on two soft offensive fouls. I thought we generally moved the ball well and were active defensively the whole time, and eventually the game turned in our favor. We jumped on them when the refs got foul crazy in the 2nd half, Buie delivered with 19 in the second half, and Ray was relentless getting to the hoop, and it paid off.

Great game off the bench from Staff, glad to see he got recognized with the post game interview, he really stepped up with Kante and Coburn in foul trouble. Schutte held is own tonight too, good performances from the bench.

Any word on Silverio? He didn't appear to be on the bench tonight.

[HUSID74]

Yes Silverio was missing but heard nothing. Huge comeback when we were not at our best. Buie started off slowly, clearly his wrist was bothering him and Eli looked like he Hurt his knee. Great to see Stafford step up with defense, blocks and taking it to the rim. Forget the threes Stafford!

First is ours! Time to hold court at home vs Charleston!

[Hof_Judge99]

Yes Silverio was missing but heard nothing. Huge comeback when we were not at our best. Buie started off slowly, clearly his wrist was bothering him and Eli looked like he Hurt his knee. Great to see Stafford step up with defense, blocks and taking it to the rim. Forget the threes Stafford!

First is ours! Time to hold court at home vs Charleston!

The best thing I take out of the win is that none of our guys really played that well and we were still able to pull it out. Really gutty effort in the second half and hopefully we can see 40 minutes of that on Thursday which is obviously a huge game.
This may sound harsh but Silverio not playing is probably why we won. Trueheart is the better option. Stupid question but are Trueheart and Coburn both juniors? ESPN lists them as seniors but I thought both had one more year.

[Flying Dutchmen]

This may sound harsh but Silverio not playing is probably why we won. Trueheart is the better option. Stupid question but are Trueheart and Coburn both juniors? ESPN lists them as seniors but I thought both had one more year.

Trueheart and Coburn are both RS Juniors so they should both be coming back next year.

As for Silverio, I mean he doesn't really play much, I think he could carve out a role as a 3 point shooter like Bernardi. I think he has more athleticism too, but it hasn't worked within our offense yet. I just hope he's not missing games due to family issues again, hope everything is good on that front for him.

[Jojogunne]

Good to see JWF at the game. He brought us good luck!

[Wags]

Good to see JWF at the game. He brought us good luck!

He said although he's flying back on Sunday, he might be back again for Thursday's game.

He also said he follows the team closely on FloHoops.

[daHUPride]

Good to see JWF at the game. He brought us good luck!

For a lot of the game I thought JFW suited up for Northeastern - Roland - in the #12 jersey ... you talk about channeleing his game. Roland first half he was unstoppable; his end of 2nd half leaning lefty "3" was absolutely JFW-ish.
But yes havingJFW "home" was a great touch.

In general - I thought Hofstra did a great job of pumping it up with the new announcer...it'll take time for the crowd to embrace it but I liked what they are trying.
Except the audio system when listening to videos - sorry - I can hardly make a word out of anything the speaker was saying.

[Polito]

Great battle, energized crowd, and a very big W at home - I did not expect them to win this one going in, they really showed something here

NU played HARD man, intense aggressive D, and it had HU frustrated all game - as a result they didn’t play that well, but rather they gutted one out when things weren’t perfect, and that made it all the better - finally won a big home game when the shots were not falling

Kante was schooled often, Coburn nada, Eli couldn’t buy a shot, and Ray squandering some FTs, didn’t feel great many times BUT they just wouldn’t go away, never quit, played their butte off

Also very happy for ST, gave a big boost off the bench when called

Refs making calls seemingly 10 seconds after the play was very annoying - and shady - didn’t think they favored HU, but perhaps did have to makeup for a few poor very ticky tack ones against our side

Awesome to see JWF!

And ecstatic to see an actual crowd!! My girls and I really had a blast - team deserves it and more, and we all got a heckuva game, and a heckuva win!

[triplec2195]

We give up 40 points in the first half and amazingly only down by 10 with the way we shot. I was there early so had time to see both teams pre-practice and I just find it hard to believe that this kid Roland who has the most unorthodox shot ever could be a scorer. It just defies logic and he shoots in the corner like jumping backwards to avoid the D and hurls the ball two handed over his head and the crazy thing is he has perfected this bizarre shot. I'm sure when he was growing up probably lots of coaches tried to correct this shot and make him shoot in a more normal way. The shot he hit at the end of the game with his left hand was clearly other worldly just unbelievable.

We were fortunate in this game to have had 9 fouls called on them to our one in the second half. I was surprised once we got into the one and one we didn't drive more to get to the foul line. Around that time when we had an 8 point lead we really settled for poor shots and missed most of them allowing them to make the game close again. Note if the converse was true and they were in the bonus almost definitively we would have been in trouble because most of their players especially Roland and Brace are automatic from the foul line.

Also don't know why I didn't realize that Silverio wasn't there maybe a blessing 20/20 hindsight but clearly a good player who will make his mark here before its all over. A great comeback win.

[HUSID74]

How about that heave Roland made from the left corner from Roland to get NE within one 69-68????? Crazy shot.

Funny that people bring up the refs...had coffee with Joe last week and he said he hates playing on Saturdays because there are no refs available due to all the games.

He said wait until you see this group on Saturday....The worst! How prophetic was that????

Nevertheless we endured, without our best...real good sign!

As for Silverio, very strange he was not on the bench, hope he doesn't have coronavirus! For all his shortcomings we are really limited without him...had to go with Trueheart today and it worked out but we had no guards to spell anyone.

[joeg1]

Joe was effusive in his praise of the crowd/atmosphere yesterday, and I agree. It really did seem to make a difference.

The recognition of the 20 yr anniversary of the AE championship team was great. When they played the game highlights on the big screens (I was at the game), I was surprised how emotional I got. Also, when they played Jay Wright's comments, a big roar went up, and coming out of the timeout, the place got loud! The energy seemed to carry the team the rest of the way, even though NE fought to the wire. It was one of the best game experiences I've had in recent years.

[Wags]

For a lot of the game I thought JFW suited up for Northeastern - Roland - in the #12 jersey ... you talk about channeleing his game. Roland first half he was unstoppable; his end of 2nd half leaning lefty "3" was absolutely JFW-ish.
But yes havingJFW "home" was a great touch.

That was just ridiculous. Not even sure JWF could've pulled that one off. Maybe, given what we saw him do sometimes.

In general - I thought Hofstra did a great job of pumping it up with the new announcer...it'll take time for the crowd to embrace it but I liked what they are trying.
Except the audio system when listening to videos - sorry - I can hardly make a word out of anything the speaker was saying.

The new announcer was good. He brought a good energy. Though, the PA guy Siddique is also good at that. But, I guess it makes sense to split those duties.

Shame about the audio on the videos. You weren't the only one. No one could hear it clearly. They have to fix that. Shame, because It was great to have messages from both Jays, Norm and the highlights of the first title game against Delaware, but the poor audio detracted from that. Too bad.

Speedy said he glanced at the videos but didn't really focus on them because he was busy coaching during those breaks (which is what you want him to say). He didn't miss much anyway because of the audio. He did say it as "amazing" to see so many wearing his shirt and he said HU did a great job to bring all the alumni back.

[triplec2195]

It was very loud and noisy in there a big part of the problem but when they turned the volume up it was a lot more audible. They did it when Norman was speaking but not Jay.


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[Wags]

Joe was effusive in his praise of the crowd/atmosphere yesterday, and I agree. It really did seem to make a difference.

The recognition of the 20 yr anniversary of the AE championship team was great. When they played the game highlights on the big screens (I was at the game), I was surprised how emotional I got. Also, when they played Jay Wright's comments, a big roar went up, and coming out of the timeout, the place got loud! The energy seemed to carry the team the rest of the way, even though NE fought to the wire. It was one of the best game experiences I've had in recent years.

Awesome to hear that feedback. I hope many others felt the same way. Having the students back definitely helped the environment, too. I think the scheduling hurts every year. Nothing you can do about it, but the team normally plays well enough to be a league contender each year and if the students were there each game, I think we'd see momentum build as the season goes on. But that winter break over several home games interrupts that. This year, with that type of environment starting yesterday, and with four home games still left, there's still some time left to maintain that environment for a while before the CAAT.

By the way, with the Speedy shirt, I love the old Hofstra "VISA" logo on the back, above his name. And I loved seeing that logo on the videoboards throughout the game.

[triplec2195]

Give credit to Hofstra for the second half comeback but when Roland fouled Ray a call Roland was very unhappy with Roland sat (4th foul)and NE looked totally lost without him, desperate to effectuate their offense. We got back in the game quickly


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