Northeastern Beats Up Hofstra Inside and Out

By Jon Wagner

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. -- After three straight Colonial Athletic Association wins, the Hofstra Pride was feeling pretty good about itself.

Perhaps too good.

Admitting that his team suffered a letdown at home when it should have hungered for more success, head coach Joe Mihalich expected his Pride (7-13, 3-2 CAA) -- picked last in the conference -- to continue being the surprise of the CAA.

Instead, the Northeastern Huskies (7-14, 4-3 CAA) used the effective inside-outside game of junior guard Demetrius Pollard (25 points) and redshirt junior forward Scott Eatherton (18 points, seven rebounds) to rally from an early 10-point deficit and later and finish on a 32-13 surge, to win, 70-57, at the Mack Sports Complex on Saturday afternoon.

“We let a great opportunity slip away today,” Mihalich said. “It’s very disappointing… we didn’t handle having a little bit of success.”

While each team shot the same 12-for-25 from the floor in the opening half, and finished with an identical 54 field goal attempts and 30 rebounds, the Huskies made six more shots (28-22) overall, and stymied the Pride’s offense with a tough 3-2 zone that Hofstra was unable to penetrate.

Although Northeastern only went to the foul line seven times (making five), the Pride settled for 21 3-point attempts (and made only six) while taking just nine foul shots (making seven), after entering the game with a CAA-leading 26.5 free throw attempts per game.

“The zone hurt [us],” Mihalich said. “[We] should have been more productive with our post guys.”

What hurt more though, was Hofstra’s two best players, each graduate student transfers, point guard Dion Nesmith (18 points) and CAA-leading scorer, forward Zeke Upshaw (12 points), failing to score over the final 15:13, after the duo helped put the Pride up by six points.

“I felt like they extended the zone a little bit and tried to deny me the ball with the 3-2 [zone], Upshaw said. “So it was definitely tough in that regard.”

Two other Hofstra players, freshman guard Jamall Robinson (11 points, four assists) and senior center Moussa Kone (10 points, all in the second half) joined Nesmith and Upshaw in double figures in scoring. But shorthanded, the Pride only played three other players who totaled six points between them, as Nesmith and Robinson logged 38 minutes apiece and Upshaw 37. 

It was a game In which Hofstra certainly could have used injured sophomore forward Jordan Allen.

“We’re not going to make any excuses, but man, we missed him,” Mihalich said. “He’s a starter… his stats don’t blow you away, but it’s all the other things that he does… he was playing good (before he got hurt).”

Mihalich noted the Pride’s struggles at each end of the floor, saying, “I don’t know what was worse, our defense or our offense. They were both pretty bad.”

When it came to trying to stop Pollard (who shot a scorching 9-for-14, including 6-for-8 from 3-point range) or Eatherton (an even hotter 8-for-10), Mihalich conceded, “We didn’t do either one well. They both had their way. They both did whatever they wanted.”

Early on, it was Hofstra doing that, as the Pride scored the first seven points and led, 12-2, after six minutes. But the Huskies scored the next seven points, as a pair of free throws and a dunk by Eatherton (Northeastern’s leading scorer) sandwiched Pollard’s first trey of the game.

A jumper by Robinson pushed the lead to 29-20, with 6:01 left in the first half, but a Pollard 3-point play ended a 10-4 run that pulled the Huskies to within 33-30 by halftime.

In blowing another halftime edge, Hofstra dropped to just 6-8 in games that it has led at the half.

Nesmith completed a 3-point play on either side of the under-16 timeout, with 15:30 left in the game, and Upshaw followed that with a layup, 16 seconds later, to give the Pride a 44-38 lead. However, neither would score again.

With those two silenced, Northeastern scored the next 10 points. Pollard gave the Huskies their first lead, 46-44, on a layup at the 11:34 mark, as the run became a larger 16-3 spurt that ended with Northeastern ahead, 54-47, with 8:50 remaining.

Hofstra closed to within 57-53, before a drive and a thunderous two-handed dunk by Eatherton regained some momentum for the Huskies.

Pollard followed that with a right-wing 3-pointer to push the lead to 62-53, with 4:04 to go.

Kone threw down a dunk with 1:49 left, that would have brought the Pride to within five points if not for a lucky, banked 3-pointer with the shot clock expiring, by sophomore forward David Walker (10 points), giving Northeastern a comfortable 65-55 lead, on the previous trip.

Since Hofstra didn’t play well following some prosperity, Mihalich returned to playing the “us-against-the-world” card to motivate his players for a difficult stretch over the next two games, as the Pride will visit Towson (12-8 3-2 CAA), the CAA preseason favorite, on Monday night, before hosting Drexel (10-9, 2-4 CAA) -- picked second in the conference -- on Wednesday night.

“We don’t have time to sit around and mope,” Mihalich said. “We don’t have time to feel sorry for ourselves… we’ve got a big game Monday night and another one on Wednesday… we’ve got to go out there and get that chip back on our shoulder and try to prove people wrong. We didn’t prove anybody wrong today. So we’ll see if we can do that Monday night, because nobody thinks we’re going to win that game, nobody in the league, nobody down at Towson… so it’s up to us to be the ones that can do that.”

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.