BY RODERICK BOONE
Well that was rather quick, wasn't it?
Hofstra's season ended minutes ago with an eye-hurting 81-66 loss to No. 9 Towson in the first round of the CAA Tournament at Richmond Coliseum in Virginia. The Pride, seeded eighth and the designated home team, was the gang that couldn't shoot straight. It hit 3 of its first 26 shots from the floor and finished with a meager four field goals in the first half.
"First half, we just got off to a slow start and we didn't shoot the ball well, and on top of that we weren't defending," Antoine Agudio said. "That's what got us down in the first half and that hurts a lot."
In typical fashion, Hofstra stormed back to make a game of it and actually cut an 18-point halftime deficit down to 51-48 with just under eight minutes remaining. But Towson, which will meet top-seeded VCU in the quarterfinals at noon Saturday, outscored the Pride 30-18 the rest of the way to close things out.
Agudio scored 25 of his 27 points in the second half and finished his outstanding career as Hofstra's leading scorer with 2,276 career points. There will be no postseason tournament for the senior guard.
"It's ashamed because he is such a quality young man," Hofstra coach Tom Pecora said. "You want it to end like a fairytale for him, but life's not fair. We talk all the time about sports and competing in college is like a microcosm of the real world. Sometimes things don't work out."
Charles Jenkins, fresh of being named the CAA's rookie of the year, had all 14 of his points in the second half.
So Hofstra finishes its disappointing season with a 12-18 record and Pecora vowed a season like this won't become the norm. Whether you want to believe it or not, Hofstra has been the most successful program in the metropolitan area these last few years and don't think Pecora isn't well aware of that.
"I take this very seriously," Pecora said, adding he's about to hit the recruiting trails immediately. "It's part of my legacy. I don't want my legacy to be a 12-17 season and it won't be that way next year."
Here's the boxscore from today's game.
Comments (1)
I'm a fan of Pecora, but gotta be fair here, TP and his coaching staff did a bad job with this team this yr
Of course there will be down years, but when you have the CAA ROY, arguably the POY, and a conference that's wide open, one would expect a better season
But I like the talent coming in and have always felt confident in TP's recruiting, so hopefully HU finds its way next yr
Best of luck to the seniors!
GO HOFSTRA!