Baltimore, MD – Senior center
Moussa Kone had his third double-double of the season with 18 points and 11 rebounds to lead the Hofstra Men's Basketball team to a dominating 74-57 victory over James Madison in the quarterfinals of the Colonial Athletic Association Championship on Saturday afternoon at the Royal Farms Arena.
With the win, Hofstra advances to the semifinals of the CAA Championship where it will face top-seeded William & Mary on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. That game will air nationally on the NBC Sports Network.
The win improved Hofstra's record to 20-12 this season. It marks the 10th time in the program's Division I history (since 1972-73) that Hofstra has won at least 20 games in a season and the first since the 2010-11 team won 21 games.
Hofstra also got a bit of revenge on the Dukes as James Madison defeated the Pride in both regular season meetings this season, including in the regular season finale a week ago.
The appearance in the CAA semifinals will be Hofstra's first since the 2010-11 season.
Hofstra jumped out to an early 15-10 advantage as an old-fashioned three-point play from junior forward
Ameen Tanksley with 13:31 left in the opening half gave the Pride a five-point lead.
The lead would quickly be erased as James Madison used a 10-0 scoring run to open up a 20-15 lead following a three-pointer from Dimitrije Cabarkapa with 11:16 showing on the clock. In a half of significant runs, Hofstra answered with a 12-0 spurt of their own. The lead would be 27-20 for Hofstra after a three-point play from freshman forward
Rokas Gustys and Tanksley had five points during the run to give Hofstra the lead back.
The Pride would push their lead to as many as 13 in the first half as Hofstra put together an impressive 22-4 run from the 11:16 mark until 3:20 was left in the half. The run concluded with a three-pointer from sophomore guard
Jamall Robinson to make it 37-24 Hofstra.
JMU would score the final four points of the stanza to trail by six at the break as Hofstra struggled from free throw line, shooting just 3-10 in the opening 20 minutes.
It would be a slow start to the second stanza for both squads as the teams combined for just 15 points over the first five-plus minutes of the half. Hofstra would be on the better part of that ledger, though, as the Pride scored 10 points to the Dukes' five, and expanded the lead to 49-38. Kone opened the second half scoring with a layup and added a thunderous dunk with 16:49 to play in regulation to key the run.
Hofstra would continue to keep the Dukes at arm's length, holding a 13-point advantage, 56-43, until a personal 4-0 scoring run from JMU's Ron Curry cut the Pride lead to 56-47 heading into the under eight media timeout.
The Pride would take its largest lead of the game as a three-pointer from graduate guard
Dion Nesmith followed by back-to-back layups from junior guard
Juan'ya Green pushed the lead to 67-49 with 3:28 showing on the clock. In total, the 7-0 run put the finishing touches on a convincing victory in the quarterfinal match-up.
Hofstra placed a total of four players in double figures as Tanksley finished with 16 points, five rebounds, three assists and three steals. Gustys had a solid showing in his first-ever collegiate postseason with 11 points, five rebounds and two steals, while Green was his usual solid self with 10 points, eight assists and four rebounds.
Ron Curry led the Dukes with 18 points, while Cabarkapa added 12 points and six rebounds. Tom Vodanovich led JMU with seven rebounds and Curry had four assists for the Dukes.
