Frantz Massenat’s Brilliant Peformance Helps Drexel Hold Off Hofstra

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. -- Senior guard Frantz Massenat left the door open for the Hofstra Pride when he missed the first of two free throws with his team up three points and 5.6 seconds left at the Mack Sports Complex on Wednesday night.

Frantz Massenat's career night led
Drexel to a narrow road win at CAA
rival Hofstra (Photo: Jon Wagner)

But when Hofstra (7-15, 3-4 Colonial Athletic Association) failed to capitalize on its last possession, Massenat, who did just about everything else right, was easily forgiven, as the Drexel Dragons (11-9, 3-4 CAA) held on for a 77-74 victory to snap a two-game skid while handing the Pride its third straight loss.

Not only did the Ewing, New Jersey product lead all scorers with a career-high 32 points, but he did so on 9-of-18 shooting, including 6-of-9 from 3-point range, while going 8-for-10 at the foul line and dishing out a game-best nine assists, all without turning the ball over.

He also made a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to give the Drexel a 40-32 halftime lead. And after Hofstra fought back therafter, Massenat scored on a driving layup to put the Dragons up for good, 68-66, with 2:08 remaining.

“He’s a winner, that kid,” Hofstra head coach Joe Mihalich said of Massenat. “When his team needs him, he makes winning plays… he’s just a good player.”  

Graduate student Chris Fouch, from  the Bronx, added 19 points as the only other Drexel scorer in double figures.

The Pride had four players in that category, with graduate transfer guard Zeke Upshaw leading the way with 27 points, on 8-of-20 shooting, after starting just 2-for-8. 

Upshaw was one of a trio of Hofstra players to play all 40 minutes, as he was joined by freshman guard Jamall Robinson (15 points, 10 rebounds), graduate transfer point guard Dion Nesmith (13 points, eight assists, five three turnovers) and junior forward Moussa Kone (10 points, all in the first half).

A pair of treys within the first 2:31 by Massenat sparked the Dragons to an 11-2 lead before each team went on scoring streaks.

Hofstra answered with the next four points, before a Massenat jumper later in the opening half put Drexel up, 20-11, by the under-12 timeout, with Robinson accounting for nine of the Pride’s points (to already surpass his season average of 8.8 points by that time).   

Five straight Pride points followed, to trim the gap to 20-16, but the Dragons responded with the next seven points to take the biggest lead of the game, 27-16, on a 3-pointer by Massenat with 7:38 left in the half. But with Upshaw hitting a 3 after missing his first four shots, Hofstra again ran off five consecutive points and extended that run to a larger 11-2 spurt that cut Drexels' lead to 29-27.

After another 3 by Upshaw made it 32-30, Fouch matched that shot with a 3 to start an 8-2 Dragons run to close the half.

Trailing by six points within the first three minutes of the second half, the Pride went on another 11-2 surge, to take its first lead, 50-47, after a drive in the paint by Upshaw and a pass for a right corner 3 that marked Robinson’s first points since the nine he scored early in the game.

Despite the loss, head coach Joe Mihalich said, “I thought our kids played their hearts out. They just never, never quit. Where we smart at all times? No. Did we leave a lot of plays on the floor. Yeah.  Did we make our fair share of mistakes that we just can’t make if we wanna win games like this? Yeah. But our guys played their hearts out right until the final buzzer.”

With Robinson sitting just to his right after the game, Mihalich admitted, “I think I’ve done a lousy job with Jamall over the last couple of weeks, I really do. I’m going to try to do a better job with him, because there’s not a better guy on the team than this guy… as we go on here this year, and in the years to come, he going to be a big part of the solution here.”

To those words, Robinson said of his coach, “I feel like I’ll work hard on the floor and off the floor with him, because we have the same goal, trying to win. That’s what it’s all about.”

Moments after Robinson moved Hofstra ahead, Massenat completed a nice 3-point play to give him 24 points and put Drexel up, 52-50. But another Robinson 3-pointer regained the lead for the Pride, 56-54, before freshman guard Chris Jenkins made a 3 as well, for his only points, to give Hofstra a 59-54 edge.

Freshman forward Rodney Williams (eight points, six rebounds) was set up by Massenat for a dunk on the next trip, and almost 2½ minutes later, another Massenat 3 put the Dragons ahead, 61-60, with 6:08 left.

Following that basket, neither team took more than a two-point lead until Massenat assisted on a layup by junior forward Abif Kazembe (six points, seven rebounds), to give Drexel a 70-66 advantage on the Dragons' last field goal, with 1:34 to go.

Just enough free throws took Drexel home from there, even though a Nesmith 3-pointer with 6.4 seconds left, drew Hofstra to as close as 76-74.

With Nesmith fouling out just before Massenat’s last two free throws, and injured sophomore forward Jordan Allen (who at times, has played the point), the Pride struggled to get in position for a 3-pointer that might have forced overtime.

Kone eventually received the ball near midcourt and frantically looked around for someone to pass to, before he finally spotted Upshaw, who could do no better than take an off-balance, desperation 35-footer that fell well short of the rim.

Mihalich noted Allen’s absence hurting his squad. “He’s a starter,” he said of Allen, who will require surgery for a broken nose that has kept him out for the past 3½ games.

“We had our sixth and seventh men on the floor a lot. If [Allen’s playing], they’re not on the floor as much… he’s getting 12 points and six rebounds in league games. He changes the whole dynamic of our rotation… because he’s versatile. He and Zeke create mismatch problems. They go back and forth and play a couple of different positions. So without him, we can’t do that.”

Yet Mihalich also pointed to other reasons for the loss, ending with some sarcasm to drive home his point. “We didn’t lose because we didn’t have Jordan Allen,” he said. “We lost the game in the first half. We gave up 40 points in the first half. We didn’t guard the shooters well, we didn’t guard the post well, we didn’t rebound. Other than that, we were perfect on defense.”

And most of all, they couldn’t stop Massenat, who had one of the best all-around games ever seen in the 14-year old Mack, on Hofstra’s campus.

Drexel, which has been besieged by its own injuries since upsetting UCLA on the road and nearly beat top-ranked Arizona on a neutral floor (when Arizona ranked fourth in the nation), desperately needed the victory to try to get back toward the team that was picked to finish second in the CAA. The Dragons will next travel to CAA favorite Towson, on Saturday, hoping to avenge a January 14 home loss to the Tigers.

Meanwhile, Hofstra could have also used the win, having lost three straight in the CAA after being picked last in the league and then surprising everyone with a 3-1 start to conference play. Starting a tough stretch of four road contests in five games, ending with a rematch at Drexel, the Pride will travel to Charleston, which lost in Hempstead on January 11.

Jon Wagner is a Yahoo Sports contributor covering the New York Knicks, New York Giants and New York Mets. He also covers the Knicks, Hofstra University men's basketball and the New York Cosmos for New York Sports Day. Follow Jon on Twitter, @JonathanJWagner, and visit his Yahoo Contributor Network page by clicking here.