Krystal Luciano. Photo by: Stacy Podelski/1495 Sports
The Hofstra Women’s Basketball team put up a hard fight after falling behind early but fell to a physical Delaware club 73-62 at the Mack Sports Complex Sunday afternoon. The Pride has no answer for Delaware’s Erika Brown who finished with a game-high 31 points to lead the Blue Hens to a regular-season sweep over Hofstra.
Anjie White led the Pride with 16 points and also added seven rebounds. Ashunae Durant and Kelly Loftus each had 12 points for Hofstra while Krystal Luciano added seven assists. Durant also had eight rebounds to lead the home team.
“It was a disappointing loss for us today,” Coach Krista Kilburn-Steveskey said after the game. “I thought we had great effort on the floor but to come up short is a bit painful.”
The Pride had difficulty hitting their shots in this game, shooting just 34.4 percent from the floor for the game including a disappointing 2-for-14 from behind the three-point line. Delaware shot 46.4 percent from the field including 51.7 percent in the first half.
“We had the shots, we just didn’t knock them down,” White explained.
“We’re best when we’re getting stops and going,” Kilburn Steveskey said. “The execution down the stretch was disappointing.”
It was a tough loss for Hofstra who wanted to avenge their loss last month in Delaware. “They were doing the same thing they did the last time we played them which was just pushing us around,” White added. “I definitely feel like we came out harder because everyone on the team wanted to win this one after the result of the last game. We tried to fight back but obviously it wasn’t enough.”
Hofstra had their biggest lead of the game early in the first half when a jumper by White made it 14-8 for the home team. But a 13-2 run late in the first half led mainly by Brown gave Delaware a 34-23 lead with 2:53 left in the half.
The Pride whittled the lead down to 34-30 with 40 seconds left in the half but a three-pointer by Brown with two seconds left gave Delaware a seven-point lead at the half.
Delaware maintained its lead early in the second half and increased it to 15 points with just a bit more than 10 minutes left. The Pride refused to quit and gradually reduced the lead by controlling the offensive glass and drawing fouls.
Defensively, Hofstra was able to create turnovers in the second half by using the press and playing strong defense on the ball.
The closest the Pride managed to get was five points when a three by Kelly Loftus made the score 65-60 with 1:27 left on the clock. But Delaware denied Hofstra quality shots in the final 90 seconds and held on for the win.
The loss drops the Pride to 13-8 on the season and 6-4 in the CAA.
Hofstra returns to action Friday when the Pride hosts conference leader James Madison at 7 pm.
For more information on the Hofstra Women’s Basketball team fans are encouraged to click on the link seen here: