Hempstead, NY – The Hofstra Men's Basketball team will look to begin Colonial Athletic Association play on a positive note when it takes on longtime rival Delaware in its conference lid-lifter on Saturday down in Newark, Delaware. 

Tip-off from the Bob Carpenter Center on New Year's Eve is scheduled for 2 p.m. 

There will be Pride Productions live audio for the game, as well as live video (via Delaware) and live statistics. The audio only broadcast can be heard via the Pride Productions portal, the WRHU mobile app, WRHU.org and 88.7 FM in the local Hempstead area. Links to all can be found on this page and on the men's basketball schedule page at GoHofstra.com.

A well-rested Hofstra squad will come into its conference opener having played just two games in its last 19 days as the team took a break for final exams and to celebrate the holidays. 

Hofstra is 8-7 in its 15 CAA openers and 6-9 in its 15 CAA road openers. The Pride won its CAA opener and CAA road opener in each of the past two seasons. 

Hofstra (8-5) will bring a short two-game win streak into the meeting with the Blue Hens, and those two wins might have been their most complete efforts of the season. The Pride roared past Stony Brook, 96-58, in the Battle of Long Island on December 13 and followed that up with a rather easy 84-64 victory over Siena on December 22. 

Senior Deron Powers has shined recently for the Pride and his outing against Siena was arguably his best of the season. Powers posted game-highs of 21 points and eight assists, with only one turnover as he quarterbacked the squad to near perfection in the 20-point rout of the Saints. He didn't do it alone, though, as the nation's leading rebounder – junior Rokas Gustys – had a double-double with 10 points and 15 rebounds. Sophomore Justin Wright-Foreman continued his scoring prowess as he scored 16 points to assist in the winning effort. 

Powers is Hofstra's second leading scorer this season at 13.6 points per game, while leading the team with 64 assists. Freshman Eli Pemberton is tops on the roster in scoring with 14.5 points per outing and is shooting nearly 50% (28-58) from three-point range. Gustys is averaging 13.5 rebounds per game to go along with his 9.8 points per game. 

Senior Brian Bernardi is nearly another career milestone as the talented sharp-shooter has 983 points as a member of the Pride. With 17 more points he will become only the 34th member of the 1,000-Point Club at Hofstra. Bernardi has 1,093 in his career, including his season at SMU. He ranks third on the team this season with 13.1 points per game. 

Delaware enters Saturday's tilt with a record of 7-6 after earning a 63-54 victory over Iona on Wednesday. Three players average in double figures for the Blue Hens with Ryan Daly leading the way with 12.0 points per game. Anthony Mosley (11.4) and Cazmon Hayes (10.3) join Daly in double figures. Daly also leads the team with 6.6 rebounds per game and Mosley has dished out a team-best 39 assists this season. 

Hofstra leads the all-time series with Delaware 52-31 in a series that dates back to a 115-68 Hofstra win in the first-ever meeting during the 1954-55 season. The Pride has won four straight in the series, which ended an eight-game win streak for the Blue Hens against Hofstra.