Hofstra women's basketball wins close battle over George Mason

      On paper Thursday afternoon's Hofstra-George Mason women's basketball game looked like a mismatch after the Pride defeated the Patriots 72-39 in Fairfax, Va. just two weeks ago. However the last place team in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) gave Hofstra all they could handle before the Pride pulled away in the end for a 59-49 win in front of 1,016 fans during "Family Fun Day" at the Mack Sports Complex.
      Despite the Pride (15-11, 8-6 in CAA) having blown out George Mason on Feb. 4, Hofstra women's basketball head coach Krista Kilburn-Steveskey was not surprised that the result was much closer the second time around since the Patriots did not have starting point guard Brittany Poindexter in the first meeting. "Knowing that Brittany Poindexter did not play [in the first meeting] .... we knew had a pretty big task at hand," said Kilburn-Steveskey. "This team was a different team than we played last time."
     Thanks in large part to Poindexter's 13 points George Mason (8-17. 1-3 in the CAA) only trailed 46-45 with 6:46 left before Hofstra ended the game on a 13-4 run. The Pride were led by freshman forward Shante Evans, who posted her 11th double-double of the season with 20 points and 17 rebounds.
     The Pride came into Thursday afternoon's George Mason game winners of four of six but coming off a 56-52 loss at Northeastern. Thursday's win moves Hofstra to within one game of James Madison for that all-important fourth place that would garner a first round bye in next month's CAA Tournament. Hofstra is next in action at Drexel this Sunday at 1 p.m.    
    "We really have a lot of goals here to finish out strong," said Kilburn-Steveskey. "We can really end and finish strong and have some post season play if we really seize the moment here."