Hempstead, NY – The Hofstra Men's Basketball team will return to Madison Square Garden for the first time since 2009 on Sunday when it faces Appalachian State at 1 p.m. in the Holiday Festival. 

The game is part of a doubleheader as St. John's will face St. Francis Brooklyn before Hofstra takes on the Mountaineers at approximately 1 p.m. 

There will be Pride Productions live audio as well as live stats. The audio broadcast can be heard on the Pride Productions portal, WRHU.org, WRHU mobile app and WRHU (88.7 FM). Links to the broadcast and live stats can be found on this page and the men's basketball schedule page at GoHofstra.com. 

Hofstra is 9-9 all-time at Madison Square Garden, but 8-6 in its last 14 games in the World's Most Famous Arena. The Pride's most recent appearance at MSG occurred during the 2009-10 season when they took part in the Aeropostale Holiday Festival and faced St. John's and Davidson. Hofstra's last win at the Garden was on December 29, 2006 when the Pride earned a 63-51 win over St. John's. Hofstra has won three Holiday Festivals at Madison Square Garden – adding titles in 1998 and 1999 to the 2006 title.

Hofstra (5-2) has won two straight since returning from the Paradise Jam in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Impressively, both wins have been on the road over Atlantic 10 schools as the Pride defeated St. Bonaventure, 89-83, on November 28 and most recently earned a 84-80 victory over La Salle on Wednesday. 

The win over the Explorers gave Head Coach Joe Mihalich his 300th career win as he won 265 games during his 15 seasons at Niagara and now has 35 in his two-plus seasons with Hofstra. Mihalich is a 1978 graduate of La Salle and also spent 17 years there as an assistant coach. 

Junior guard Brian Bernardi led the way for Hofstra against La Salle with 22 points, including four three-pointers. In total, six players reached double figures and graduate forward Denton Koon contributed nicely with his second double-double of the season with 12 points and 10 rebounds. 

Senior guard Juan'ya Green continues to lead the Pride in both scoring and assists with averages of 18.4 and 7.6, respectively. He currently ranks ninth nationally in assists per game.  

Four members of the Pride average in double figures with a fifth nearby. Senior forward Ameen Tanksley (15.7 ppg), Bernardi (14.6 ppg) and Koon (12.6 ppg) are in double figures, while sophomore setter Rokas Gustys averages 9.1 points and a team-best 8.7 rebounds per outing. 

Appalachian State is 2-5 this season with wins over Jacksonville and Liberty. They have dropped games to Furman, Hampton, Tulane, Mercer and Stephen F. Austin. 

Frank Eaves leads Appalachian State with 18 points per game, while Chris Burgess (11.9 ppg) and Ronshad Shabazz (10 ppg) also average double digits. Griffin Kinney is tops on the Mountaineers with 4.9 rebounds per outing and Eaves averages a team-high 2.1 assists per game. 

This will be the second all-time meeting between Hofstra and Appalachian State as the Pride earned a 68-51 victory over the Mountaineers last December. Coach Mihalich is 4-0 as a head coach against Appalachian State with wins over ASU in 2005-06, 2007-08, 2008-09 and last season.

In the game last season between the two teams, Green scored 17 points, Tanksley added 13 points and senior forward Malik Nichols notched a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds to lead Hofstra to the win. Eaves led ASU with 13 points. 

Following the Appalachian State game, Hofstra will have one more game on the schedule before taking a break for finals. The Pride will travel to Siena on Wednesday, December 9 to face the Saints at 7 p.m.