Jackson, MS – Sophomore guard Brian Bernardi had 26 points and junior forward Ameen Tanksley added 21 points as the Hofstra Men's Basketball team captured a 86-56 victory over Jackson State on Friday evening at the Lee E. Williams Athletics and Assembly Center. 

Bernardi had six three-pointers in the game, while Tanksley drained five from beyond the arc. 

With the win, Hofstra improves to 4-2 in 2014-15, while Jackson State falls to 1-5 this season. The loss also ended a 17-game non-conference road losing skid for the Pride, which last won a true road game at Manhattan (71-58) on December 18, 2010. 

Jackson State opened the scoring in the contest with a basket just 16 seconds into the game before Hofstra answered. The Pride would score the next 10 points in the game as junior forward Malik Nichols had a pair of early buckets for Hofstra. The opening of the run was aided by three-pointers from Tanksley and Bernardi. 

With Hofstra ahead 15-10 at the 13:26 mark after a three-pointer from Kaven Bernard of JSU, Hofstra would score seven straight points to push the lead to 12 at 24-12. Bernardi had another key first half three-pointer en route to his eight first half points.

The Pride lead would balloon to as many as 14 in the opening 20 minutes at 28-14 with 6:50 left before intermission after a layup from sophomore guard Jamall Robinson. Hofstra would take the momentum into the locker room as after the Tigers closed the gap to seven, 32-25, with 1:39 left after two free throws from Javeres Brent. The Pride scored the last five points of the half to push the advantage to 12 at the break. Tanksley closed the opening stanza scoring with a three-pointer with 27 ticks left on the clock. 

Hofstra would push the lead to its largest of the game to that point almost immediately to open the second half as junior guard Juan'ya Green converted an old-fashioned three-point play to allow the Pride to open up a 40-25 advantage at the 19:17 mark of the second half. 

Jackson State would get the deficit back under 10 as Jaleel Queary scored with just under 16 minutes on the clock to make it 42-34 in favor of the Pride.

JSU would claw the deficit back to 44-38 with 12:45 left in the second half, putting together a 13-4 run to narrow the gap. Tanksley would give the Pride some much needed breathing room with a three-pointer from in front of the Hofstra bench with 12:20 left in regulation to push the lead back to nine, 47-38, and force a Tigers time out. 

Tanksley, who was huge all evening, got a put-back basket with less than 12 minutes to play in regulation to allow Hofstra to return to a double-digit lead at 49-38.

That would prove to be enough breathing room for the Pride as they would go on to pull away, including a 31-6 run at one point, for the dominating 30-point victory. 

Green finished with a game-high six assists and added 14 points and three steals. Robinson chipped in with eight points, seven rebounds and five assists. 

Jackson State was led by Speck's 14 points, while Bernard added 12.  

Hofstra is back in action on Tuesday when it hosts Norfolk State at 7 p.m. For ticket information call (516) HOF-TIXX.