2/7/10

Hofstra offense hits 2nd half wall in home loss to Northeastern

As Hofstra men’s basketball head coach Tom Pecora stepped to the microphone for his post game press conference Saturday following a 75-55 home loss to Northeastern one would have expected much anger and frustration to be expressed after the Pride were outscored 45-23 in the second half. Instead the ninth year Hofstra head coach showed a relatively calm demeanor despite just watching his team shoot 25 percent to allow the Huskies to run away with an easy win on the Pride’s home floor.

“There are teams in the past I might ride real hard for two days but I think we’re too far down the line for that with this group,” said Pecora of why he does not plan to yell and scream at his players on the practice floor after they only scored 12 points in the first 16 minutes of the second half to quickly turn a 32-30 halftime lead into a rare blowout loss at the Mack Sports Complex. “They have to have some pride in the fact that somebody came in here and beat their tales pretty good.”

Hofstra (12-13,5-8 in Colonial Athletic Association), which came into Saturday’s game winners of three in a row, looked like it may be on its way to extending the winning streak after jumping out to a 15-2 lead. However the Huskies (16-8,11-2 in CAA), who have now won 14 of 15 games, answered with a 16-0 run and after trailing 32-30 at intermission outscored the Pride 20-3 to begin the second half. Hofstra outrebounded Northeastern 49-27 but committed 19 turnovers.

"When you have 19 turnovers you’re not going to beat the elite teams,” said Pecora. “You have to take care of the basketball.”

Hofstra will try and rebound from Saturday’s loss when it hosts Drexel this Wednesday Feb. 10 at 7 p.m.

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