Junior Tareq Coburn tallied a game-high 21 points, including seven three-pointers, to lead the Hofstra Men’s Basketball team to a 102-61 rout of Elon on Thursday evening at the David S. Mack Sports and Exhibition Complex.
The Pride won for the 17th time in the last 18 games to improve to 20-4 on the season and 10-1 in the Colonial Athletic Association. It is Hofstra coach Joe Mihalich’s third 20-win season with the Pride in his sixth seasons. In addition, it is Hofstra’s 22nd 20-win season in program history and the Pride’s 13th at the NCAA Division I level (since 1966-67).
Coburn tallied all 21 of his points in the first half on three-pointers, hitting 7 of 11. Senior Justin Wright-Foreman tallied 16 points and four assists while graduate student Jacquil Taylor and senior Desure Buie each added 15 points. Taylor also grabbed a game-high nine rebounds. Junior Eli Pemberton chipped in with nine points and a game and career-high nine assists. The Pride shot 57 percent (37-65) from the field including 49 percent from the three-point line (17-35). The 17-three-pointers tied the school mark set against South Carolina in 2015-16. Hofstra had an incredible 25 assists and just one turnover in the contest. The 25 assists fell one shy of the school record set earlier this season against Rosemont.
Elon had two players in double-figures led by freshman Kris Wooten with 18 points while classmate Andy Pack added 12 points and six rebounds. The Phoenix shot 38 percent (24-64) from the field. Elon, which dropped its second consecutive game, is 8-17 overall and 4-8 in the CAA.
After having their 16-game winning streak snapped at Northeastern last Saturday, the Pride were eager to start a new streak and came out on fire to build a 35-point halftime lead. Hofstra scored the first nine points of the contest, all on three-pointers including two by Coburn and one by Buie. After Chuck Hannah ended the Pride’s run with a jumper, the Pride went on 16-0 run, behind six points from Taylor and five from Buie, to boost the lead to 25-2 after Buie’s trey at the 13:28 mark.
After Steven Santa Ana stopped the Pride’s second spurt with a three-pointer at the 13:07 mark, Coburn started dropping bombs again, hitting five more in the final 12:45 of the half as the Pride hit of 64.5 percent (20-31) of their shots, including a sizzling 11 of 19 from the three-point line. Hofstra opened up their biggest lead of the half at 53-16 with 1:04 to play on Taylor’s lay-up. Coburn hit seven of 10 from the three-point line, just one short of tying the school mark-for a game-for 21 points in the half.
It didn’t get any better for the Phoenix in the second half as Hofstra went on a 16-7 run over the first 5:49 of the period to open up their biggest lead at 73-29 on Pemberton’s dunk with 14:11 to play. Elon went a mini 10-4 run to knock the deficit down to 38 at 77-39 after a Poser put-back at the 11:01 mark. But the Pride ran their lead back to as many 44 twice, the latest at 90-46 with 6:14 to play after Stafford Trueheart’s three-pointer.
The Pride closed out the contest on a 10-3 spurt to record their second 100-point game of the season in the 102-61 victory.
Hofstra will return to action on Saturday, February 9 when the Pride host the Tribe of William and Mary at the Mack Sports Complex. Game time is 4 p.m. For ticket information visit HofstraTickets.com, call (516) HOF-TIXX or stop by the Hofstra Athletics Ticket Office in the lobby of the Mack Sports Complex.
Notes
– Thursday’s contest was the 11th meeting between the Pride and the Phoenix. Hofstra, which also defeated Elon earlier this season, leads the series, 8-3.
– Wright-Foreman, who entered the game as the third-leading scorer in Division I averaging 25.5 points per game, recorded his 77th consecutive game in double-figures, which is the second longest active Division I streak and the 13th longest all-time consecutive streak, tying BYU’s Michael Smith’s streak between 1987 and 1989. The streak is also a new CAA record, breaking the mark of 76 by David Robinson of Navy from 1985-87.
– With his nine points, Pemberton now has 1,222 points to move into 21st place on the Hofstra all-time career scoring list, passing John Mills (1941-43 & 46-47) and Demetrius Dudley (1991-93) both with 1,220.
– Hofstra tallied 100 points in a conference game for the first time since a 103-87 win at UMBC during the 1991-92 season in an East Coast Conference contest.
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