Charleston, SC – Junior Justin Wright-Foreman had a team-high 26 points, but Charleston rallied from an 18-point first half deficit to defeat the Hofstra Men's Basketball team, 76-70, on Saturday afternoon at TD Arena. 

Hofstra saw its three-game win streak come to an end and falls to 12-8 overall and 5-3 in Colonial Athletic Association play. Charleston improved to 14-6 and 5-3 in conference action. Charleston's Joe Chealey led all scorers with a career-high 33 points. 

With the score knotted at six early on, Hofstra would use a 22-7 run to open a big 28-13 advantage with 6:49 left in the opening stanza. Junior Desure Buie had four points during the run and Wright-Foreman added the final four points to push the Pride to the double-digit lead. The Pride would take as large as an 18-point advantage with 5:11 left in the first half on a three-pointer from Wright-Foreman, but Charleston scored the final six points of the half to close the gap to single digits, 40-31, at the break. 

The preseason favorites in the CAA had a rally in them and the Cougars used a 15-2 run in the second half to knot the score at 54 on a three-pointer from Chealey with 9:36 left in regulation. The game would still be tied at 61 with under five minutes remaining before Chealey gave Charleston the lead with a three-pointer with 4:23 to play. A trifecta from Wright-Foreman with 3:25 showing on the clock got Hofstra back within one, 66-65, but the Cougars pushed the lead to as many as seven in the final minutes before settling for a six-point win. 

Senior Rokas Gustys added 10 points and eight rebounds for Hofstra, while Buie chipped in with seven points, five assists and five rebounds for the Pride. Grant Riller had 25 points for the Cougars.  

Hofstra is back in action on Thursday, January 25 when it hosts Northeastern at 7 p.m. For ticket information point your browser to HofstraTickets.com, call (516) HOF-TIXX or visit the Hofstra Athletics Box Office in the lobby of the David S. Mack Sports and Exhibition Complex. 

NOTES
- Hofstra is 4-5 all-time against Charleston. 
- Gustys now has 1,162 career rebounds. He is 24 rebounds shy of second place all-time in program history (John Irving; 1,186 from 1974-77). The Irving mark is also the program's NCAA Division I record for rebounds. Bill Thieben (1953-56) has the program record with 1,837. 
- Wright-Foreman now has 1,126 career points and Gustys now has 1,058 career points. Wright-Foreman is in 28th place all-time at Hofstra and two points behind Mike Moore (2010-12) for 27th place. Gustys is in 33rd place and two points behind Darius Burton for 32nd place all-time.