Charleston, SC – Sophomore Eli Pemberton scored a career-high 27 points and junior Justin Wright-Foreman added 19 points to lead the Hofstra Men's Basketball team to a 72-69 win over Dayton on Thursday evening at the Charleston Classic at TD Arena.

Hofstra, which also got 10 rebounds from senior Rokas Gustys, improves to 3-0 on the season. Dayton falls to 1-1 with the loss. 

The Pride nearly led wire-to-wire in the contest as Hofstra was ahead for more than 37 minutes of the contest and took the lead for good with 1:40 left in the second half on a pair of free throws from Gustys. Hofstra jumped out to as much as a 15-point lead in the opening stanza as Pemberton had 12 and Wright-Foreman added 11 in the first 20 minutes. The Pride still led 66-60 with 5:37 left before Dayton used a 9-2 run to earn its first lead of the contest at 69-68 with two minutes left. Gustys would be fouled grabbing a defensive rebound on Dayton's next possession and came up huge with the two free throws. Junior Kenny Wormley added another free throw to account for the final score. 

Hofstra will now face Clemson in the semifinals at 9:30 p.m. on Friday. That game will air on ESPNU. 

NOTES 
- Hofstra evened the all-time series with Dayton at 1-1. This was the first meeting between the schools since the 1981-82 season. 
- The 3-0 start is Hofstra's second in the last three years. 
- Pemberton's previous career-high of 26 points came against Towson on January 19, 2017. 
- Wright-Foreman saw his school-record (Division I) streak of leading the Pride in scoring end at 14 games. 
- Hofstra used a different starting lineup for the second time this season as Wormley started in place of junior Desure Buie.