Men's Basketball | 2/11/2012 3:00:00 PM
Hempstead, N.Y. - For the second time in four days, the
Hofstra men's basketball team will get to face an opponent tied for first place
in the Colonial Athletic Association when the Pride heads to Philadelphia to face
Drexel on Saturday at 4 p.m.
Hofstra (8-18, 2-12) will look to snap a two-game losing
streak and post its first road win since Jan. 21 at James Madison University. Drexel
(20-5, 12-2) has won its last 12 games and 18 of the last 19 games.
The Pride is coming off a game in which it built a
halftime lead on the road against a George Mason squad that is also tied for
first place in the league. Hofstra held a lead inside of six minutes at the
Patriot Center before falling, 72-62.
Hofstra will be looking for a split in the regular season series after falling
to Drexel in the opener, 56-50, on Jan. 18 in New York. Head coach Mo Cassara's team will now visit
the Daskalakis Athletic Center looking
to find answers against a Drexel team that has the CAA's top-ranked scoring
defense.
Led by senior guard Mike Moore's league-leading 19.3 scoring
average, Hofstra is averaging 64.3 points per game. Drexel is limiting
opponents to just 54.5 points and a 39.1 percent shooting from the field. The
Dragons have not allowed an opponent to crack the 60-point mark in the last 14
games and held Towson to 27 points in a win on Jan. 4.
Senior forward Samme Givens is a
double-double threat for Drexel, averaging 12.1 points and 7.3 rebounds. Givens is one of three players averaging in
double figures for head coach Bruiser Flint. Frantz Massenat leads that group
with a 13.2 average and Damion Lee is tied with Givens by scoring 12.1 points
per contest.
A milestone is in reach for Moore besides the chance to knock off a team atop
the standings. Moore recorded his
1,5000th career point at Mason (that figures includes his 513 career points in
two seasons at Fordham) and can become the 31st member of Hofstra's 1,000-point
club despite being only in his second season with the school. Moore has 993
points for Hofstra since his first
campaign in 2010-11. Moore has scored in double figures in 24 of Hofstra's 26
games, meaning he will likely reach the mark against Drexel.
Teammate Nathaniel Lester made the 1,000th-point scorer list against Towson and
has 1,037 career points. He needs nine more to move past Percy Johnson
(1950-53) and into 27th place on the team's all-time list.
Moore
and Lester continue to be the offensive catalysts. The duo has combined for 886
of Hofstra's 1,672 points this season, comprising more than 50 percent of the
team's total point production. But the Pride saw another offensive threat
emerge against Mason when junior guard Stevie Mejia poured in 11 points on
5-of-11 shooting off the bench. That marked the third time the point guard has
scored in double figures and his first since Nov. 26 versus Cleveland State.
Cassara
also showed a different look with the lineup at the Patriots, putting Mejia and
senior guard Dwan McMillan on the court at the same time. McMillan responded
four points and five assists, notching his 11th five-assist game of the season.
Drexel holds a 40-33 all-time record between the schools in a series that dates to the 1958-59
season. The teams split the two-game regular season slate last season with the
road team winning each time. Drexel is also the only one of Hofstra's former America
East rivals (including current CAA rivals Delaware, Towson, and Northeastern)
that has a winning record all-time against the Pride. Drexel won the first
eight meetings after the teams joined the CAA, but Hofstra has since won eight
of the last 14.
Live audio and statistics for the game are available at GoHofstra.com.
