The Hofstra Men’s Basketball team will play its first game in New York State on Tuesday when it heads to New Rochelle to face Iona at 7 p.m.
Tip-off from the Hynes Athletic Center is slated for 7 p.m. between the longtime rivals.
Tuesday’s game will air on ESPN3 and WRHU (88.7) will also carry the game on the HAWC starting with a 6:45 p.m. pregame show.
Hofstra is 1-1 on the young season after two quality road outings to open the year. The Pride picked up its first win of the season on Saturday evening as they earned a 73-63 road triumph over Duquesne behind 29 points from graduate student Zach Cooks. That contest came on the heels of a narrow 83-75 overtime defeat at #15 Houston on November 9.
Cooks is one of three players in double figures for Hofstra as junior Aaron Estrada is second on the team with 14.5 points and sophomore Darlinstone Dubar is third with 11.5 points per outing. Redshirt senior Abayomi Iyiola leads the team with 9.0 rebounds per game and is also contributing 9.0 points per contest. Junior Caleb Burgess has dished out 5.0 assists per game for the Pride.
Iona has opened the season with a pair of home wins as they defeated Appalachian State, 65-53 on opening night before capturing a 90-87 overtime victory over Harvard on Saturday. Nelly Junior Joseph is averaging a team-high 20.0 points per game and second with 5.5 rebounds per outing. Tyson Jolly (17.5 ppg) and Dylan van Eyck (16.5 ppg) also average in double figures for the Gaels. van Eyck leads the team with 6.5 rebounds per game.
The series between Hofstra and Iona has been incredibly close over the years with the Gaels holding a slight 21-20 lead in the 41 all-time meetings. The series began in the 1946-47 season with a 65-53 Hofstra win, while Iona won last season’s meeting in Hempstead by the score of 82-74.
The home site for each of the three games during the current series between the schools was decided via a best-of-three series of “Rock Paper Scissors” between mascots from each school – Willie Pride of Hofstra and Killian of Iona. Willie Pride defeated Killian the Gael, 2-0, last November to earn Hofstra home-court advantage in the 2020-21 meeting.
Last year’s match-up started a three-game series between the two programs and Hofstra will host the games in 2020-21 and 2022-23, while Iona will host the contest in 2021-22.
For more information on the Hofstra University Athletics Department fans are encouraged to click on the link seen here: