Lawrenceville, N.J. - Senior guard Charles Jenkins (Queens, N.Y.) had 14 of his 19 in the second half as the Hofstra Men's Basketball team earned a 58-48 win over Rider on Monday evening at Alumni Gym.

With the win, the Pride improves to 3-3 on the season, including 3-0 outside of Puerto Rico, where it fell to North Carolina, Western Kentucky and Nebraska last week. Rider, which has big non-conference wins over USC and TCU to its credit, falls to 4-3 with the loss. Junior guard Dwan McMillan (Brooklyn, N.Y.) had all 10 of his points in the first half.

Hofstra led 28-20 at the half after being up by as many as 16 in the opening stanza, and Rider was able to pull even midway through the second half. A three-pointer from Rider's Justin Robinson pulled the Broncs within 30-25. Patrick Mansell hit a 35-foot three-pointer before the shot clock expired and a driving lay-up from Brandon Penn pulled Rider even at 39-39 at the 10:07 mark.

Jenkins, though, was able to key an 8-0 run to put Hofstra back in control. He hit a leaning bank shot on the fast break, and then buried a long three-pointer on the secondary break with 8:55 left to put the Pride up 44-39. With the shot clock winding down, he then found freshman guard Shemiye McLendon (Vero Beach, Fla.) who buried a three-pointer with 7:40 to go to stretch Hofstra's lead back up to eight at 47-39. After a Rider basket, McLendon followed with another three-pointer to push the lead up to nine, and Hofstra was able to hold on from there.

Mike Ringgold had 12 of his 17 points for Rider in the second half, and Robinson finished with 17 points on five three-pointers and a late lay-up. McLendon had all eight of his points in the second half for the Pride to help Hofstra pull away late.

Hofstra used a 10-0 run in the opening minutes to take a 12-4 lead, as Jenkins found McMillan twice for lay-ups, and then hit a pull-up three-pointer on the break. Meanwhile, after starting out man-to-man and giving up four points in the paint to Ringgold, the Pride switched to a zone defense, which held Rider scoreless for a span of over eight minutes.

Hofstra then used another 8-0 run to pull ahead 24-8 on a pair of foul shots from junior guard Mike Moore (New Haven, Conn.) with 4:50 left in the half. Rider did not break into double figures until the 4:16 mark, when junior guard Novar Gadson followed his own miss for a lay-up to cut the Pride lead to 24-10.

Robinson finally shook Rider out of its offensive woes with three three-pointers in the final 3:30 of the half, enabling the Broncs to pull within 28-20 at the break. Rider shot only 3-16 from beyond the arc in the opening stanza.

Hofstra will next be in action when it returns home on Saturday for its Colonial Athletic Association opener against Towson, which tips off at 4 p.m. The contest will be the only CAA game in December, before league play begins in earnest on January 3. For ticket information, log on to GoHofstra.com or contact the Hofstra Box Office at (516) HOF-TIXX (463-8499).