Hempstead, NY - Junior guard Charles Jenkins (Queens, NY) scored a game-high 21 points and senior guard Cornelius Vines (Syracuse, NY) added 16 points on five three-pointers to lead Hofstra to a 75-58 win over New Hampshire on Saturday afternoon at the Mack Sports Complex.
Freshman Chaz Williams (Brooklyn, NY) registered a career-high 10 assists with no turnovers and finished one point shy of his first career double-double as Hofstra extended its winning streak to four games in improving to 7-3. Freshman Halil Kanacevic (Staten Island, NY) racked up eight points and eight rebounds as the Pride improved to 5-1 at home.
Jenkins scored 11 of his points in the second half and shot 7-12 overall while Vines (Syracuse, NY) hit five of six three-point attempts to help Hofstra surge to a double-digit lead late in the first half. Alvin Abreu scored 16 points for New Hampshire, which could not cut the deficit to single digits in the second half, as it fell to 3-4.
Hofstra connected on 10-15 three-pointers on the day, and held the Wildcats to 3-19 shooting from beyond the arc. Overall, New Hampshire shot just 34.5 percent from the field, marking the sixth time Hofstra held an opponent below the 40-percent threshold. The Pride is 6-0 in those contests.
Vines drilled a right-wing three-pointer two minutes into the second half, marking his fourth consecutive successful trey to extend Hofstra's edge to 50-33. The Pride led by as many as 24 points in the final minutes, before settling for the final 17-point margin.
Hofstra encountered a scary moment just 3:21 in when Jenkins stayed on the court momentarily after diving for a loose ball near midcourt. The All-American candidate went to the locker room but returned nearly two minutes later wearing redshirt junior Mike Moore's No. 31 uniform after getting blood on his No. 22 jersey. Junior forward Greg Washington (Centereach, NY) also suffered a bloody nose during pregame warm-ups and was a last minute scratch from the starting line-up, as Kanacevic made his first career start in his place. Washington did play 21 minutes off the bench and tallied four points and three blocked shots.
Jenkins' quick return sparked a 14-3 run capped by freshman David Imes' two-handed dunk in front of the student section, prompting New Hampshire to call its second timeout. Hofstra sustained the pressure as Jenkins scored 10 points in the half while Williams compiled seven points and seven assists through the first 20 minutes. Vines, who also added 10 points before the break, sent the Pride into the locker room with momentum by drilling an off-balance three-pointer as time expired for a 43-31 halftime edge.
Hofstra will next be in action when it meets St. John's in the first round of the Aeropostale Holiday Festival at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, Dec. 20 at 2 p.m. The Pride will try to extend a four-game winning streak in the series with the Red Storm, which includes a 63-51 victory in the championship game of the 2006 Holiday Festival. Hofstra is 5-2 against St. John's this decade, after the Red Storm went 19-0 in the series during the 1900's.
Davidson and Cornell meet in the first semifinal of the 2009 Holiday Festival at noon. The second day of the Holiday Festival will take place on Monday, Dec. 21 with the consolation game scheduled for 7 p.m. and the championship game for 9 p.m. In addition to the 2006 championship, the Pride also won back-to-back Holiday Festivals in 1998 and 1999 before narrowly missing a three-peat in 2000 with a 74-71 loss to Penn State in the championship game. Only St. John's (14) and Manhattan (4) have more Holiday Festival championships than Hofstra.
