HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. – Like most of this season’s parity-filled Coastal Athletic Association, the most consistent thing about the Hofstra Pride has been its inconsistency.
Right after winning eight straight games, Hofstra (15-9, 6-5 CAA) lost its next five contests, but it has now started another winning streak as the Pride is getting healthy again.
That couldn’t have come at a better time, as the CAA winds down its regular season, with a bunch of teams fiercely jockeying for position ahead of next month’s conference tournament in Washington, D.C.
Hofstra was very much in a taking-care-of-business mode while easily dispatching the 12th-place Northeastern Huskies, 80-63, at the David S. Mack Sports and Exhibition Complex on Thursday night.
The Pride’s second straight victory pulled Hofstra into a five-way tie for third-place in the muddled CAA, with the next four teams locked in their own tie, only one game back.
After nearly posting his first career triple-double, freshman point guard Preston Edmead (game-high 23 points, career-high nine rebounds, a career-high-tying eight assists and one turnover) already appears to be on his way toward a seventh CAA Rookie of the Week award, which would leave him only one short of tying the all-time CAA mark, set by fellow Hofstra guard Antoine Agudio (2004-05).
Edmead and junior guard Cruz Davis (16 points, eight assists and one turnover) evenly split Hofstra’s first 16 of their 18 assists.
“Preston with a near-triple double was key,” Hofstra head coach Craig “Speedy” Claxton said. “We’re gonna go as our guards go, and Preston had an outstanding game tonight.”
Playing for a school only about 20 miles west of his Long Island hometown of Deer Park, N.Y., Edmead is thriving at the local school.
“It’s crazy,” he said. “I’m so blessed for this experience. I’m at home. My family comes to every single home game, so there’s no better feeling.”
As he has for much of the season, Edmead (who was 5-for-7 from 3-point range while making all four of his free throws) benefitted from the attention paid to Davis, who finished the night as the CAA’s leading scorer by a single point over Campbell’s Chandler Cuthrell.
Claxton also praised Edmead for his performance.
“I couldn’t ask for anything more,” Claxton said. “I love the development [and] the growth in this kid. Game after game, he just continues to get better.”
Normally used to the lead scoring role, Davis was happy to be Edmead’s sidekick and be more of a facilitator.
“[Northeastern] kept changing defenses to kind of keep us off balance, but credit to Cruz,” Claxton said. “He didn’t let [that] affect him.”
While Hofstra had more balanced second-half scoring, the Pride relied heavily on Edmead, Davis and the welcome return of sophomore forward Joshua DeCady (15 points). That trio accounted for all but seven of the Pride’s first-half points, as Edmead led the way with 15, DeCady 12, and Davis seven, to guide Hofstra to a 41-28 halftime lead.
The Pride maintained a double-digit lead over the Huskies (6-16, 2-9 CAA) throughout the second half, twice pushing its advantage to as high as the final margin in the last minute.
Claxton was very happy to have the energy that DeCady normally provides back in the lineup after DeCady missed the prior two games with an injury.
“We got great minutes from Josh DeCady off the bench,” Claxton said. “We missed that the last couple games. We’re glad to have him back. He definitely was a boost in the first half. To have him come back and to have the type of performance that he had, it was definitely needed.”
DeCady was also a big factor at the other end of the floor.
“I have to hang my hat on the defensive end as well,” DeCady said. “I take pride in my defense. Just because I’m scoring, doesn’t mean I can’t guard.”
During the first four games of the Pride’s losing streak, Hofstra generally scored enough to win, averaging 79 points per game over that stretch. But Hofstra allowed 83.3 points per contest in those four losses.
However, the Pride’s defense greatly improved, starting in a narrow home loss to Charleston and in Hofstra’s last two wins, as the Pride has given up a substantially lower 62 points per game over its last three outings.
In part, Claxton says, that’s due to finally having a fully healthy roster again, with not only DeCady, but other key rotational pieces, like graduate guard German Plotnikov and senior guard Biggie Patterson, both back in the fold after each had missed time with injuries.
“A great job on both sides of the basketball,” Claxton said. “I thought our defense in the second part of the second half really won us the game… We’re getting back to where we want [our defense].”
Claxton also noted that a drastic change was needed after the Pride had already committed six team fouls by the first media timeout of the second half. Hofstra’s next foul wasn’t committed until nearly seven minutes later, with 9:18 remaining.
“A lot of our fouls came from guys standing up and relaxing and not being engaged the whole possession,” Claxton said. “Once they got refocused and really locked in on their guys, that’s when it started turning for us.”
Besides efficient offense and solid defense, the Pride’s rebounding dominance was too much for the Huskies.
Claxton was very pleased to see reserve junior center Victory Onuetu stay on the floor for 26 minutes without committing a single foul, a sharp departure from Onuetu’s eight disqualifications this season, including seven foul-outs and one ejection for a flagrant foul in the Pride’s most recent defeat.
The 6-foot-10, 235-pound Onuetu grabbed a game-high 12 boards, but Claxton has put an onus on his guards to do their part with clearing the glass as well. Edmead, at just 6-foot-1, 170 pounds, was outstanding in that regard, with four offensive rebounds (one more than Onuetu and one more than Northeastern).
“He’s a crasher,” Claxton said of Edmead. “He wasn’t just checking the box, he was actually going to pursue the basketball with the intent of getting it.”
Edmead adding the rebounding part of the game made him flirt with a triple-double for the first time, and the young phenom said that it may have been his most well-rounded game yet.
“I would say this is probably one of my most complete games,” Edmead said. “Making sure I’m crashing, like Speedy said, not just checking the box.”
With Hofstra’s guards like Edmead willing to do their part, the Pride is 10-5 when outrebounding its opponents this year, but only 5-4 when not doing so.
“[Winning the battle on] the glass is very important [for us],” Claxton said. “Our guards can’t just rely on our bigs to get the rebounds. They’ve got to get in there and get their noses dirty.”
While Claxton loves seeing that, there’s nothing he appreciates more than having a full, healthy roster at his disposal. That, Claxton believes, may be the biggest determining factor in Hofstra’s success this season as the Pride will have to truly earn one of the top seeds (ideally, a top-four seed and a CAA tournament double bye) down the stretch of the regular season.
Hofstra will reach the two-thirds point of the CAA regular season when the Pride seeks a season series sweep over Towson at home on Saturday. It starts the final third of CAA play with on a grueling road trip to first-place Charleston and second-place UNC Wilmington.
“We’ve finally got a full team, so everybody’s back in their normal roles, and I expect to get some [more] wins,” Claxton said. “That’s our team. We need to have a fully healthy team so everybody’s in their normal positions, their normal roles, and once we have that, we’re a really good team.”