Sophomore guard Charles Jenkins (Queens, NY) had 24 points and junior guard Cornelius Vines (Syracuse, NY - pictured) added 21, including six three-pointers, as the Hofstra Men's Basketball team defeated Towson 90-79 for its sixth straight win on Saturday evening at the Towson Center in the Colonial Athletic Association opener for both teams.
With the win, Hofstra improves to 6-1 on the year and 1-0 in the CAA while reaching 90 points for the first time since the 2006-07 regular season finale at James Madison. Towson slips to 4-4 overall and 0-1 in the CAA with the loss. The six-game winning streak is the longest for Hofstra since the 2005-06 and 2006-07 teams had five different six-game streaks.
Hofstra led by seven at the half (49-42) and by as many as 10 points early in the second half. The Tigers were able to get to within a single point at 71-70, but Hofstra answered with a 7-0 run keyed by its big men. Junior forward Miklos Szabo (Szeghalom, Hungary) hit a pair of foul shots, and sophomore forward Greg Washington (Centereach, NY) scored five straight to stretch the lead to 78-70.
Josh Thornton hit a three-pointer to cut the Pride lead to 78-73 with 4:35 left, but Jenkins hit a big pull-up jumper from the right side with 3:28 left to stretch the lead to 81-74 and senior guard Greg Johnson (Harlem, NY) made six foul shots down the stretch to help seal the win.
Hofstra overcame a quick start by Towson, which hit its first five shots of the game to take a quick 12-2 lead. However, the Pride relentlessly picked apart the Tigers' zone defense with quick passing for the entire first half, generating a myriad of lay-ups and uncontested three-pointers to take a 49-42 lead into the break. Vines hit five three-pointers in the first half alone, the last beating the buzzer to stretch the lead to seven at the break.
It was the second game in a row that Vines has beat the first half buzzer with a long three-pointer from the right wing, as he hit a similar shot to put Hofstra ahead by four (27-23) at the break against Fordham on Wednesday. The 49 points in the first half were also the highest total in the opening stanza this season (beating the 44 it had at the half against East Tennessee State), and were only two points less than the Pride scored in the entire game in last year's game at Towson (a 60-51 defeat).
Washington scored a career-high 11 points and added 10 rebounds, his second straight double double. Vines' six three-pointers were one shy of the single-game school record, held by Frank Walker and Jason Hernandez. Thornton led Towson with 20 points, including six three-pointers.
Hofstra will next be in action when it travels to Stony Brook on Wednesday for a 7 p.m. contest.
