THE FIRST LOOK
Hofstra will close out the regular season against William & Mary at Kaplan Arena. Hofstra suffered a narrow three-point decision to Elon on Thursday night by a score of 55-52, while William & Mary is also coming off a slim defeat to Northeastern, 75-71 on its home court. With the loss, the Tribe locked in the No. 7 seed for the CAA Championship. Hofstra enters Saturday's game with a record of 9-20 overall (3-14 CAA) while William & Mary is 13-5 and 6-11 in league play.
LAST TIME THEY MET
Hofstra rallied in the second half, erasing a 12-point halftime deficit, but came up short in a 60-55 loss to William & Mary Friday night in the Colonial Athletic Association opener for both teams at the David S. Mack Sports and Exhibition Complex. William & Mary closed out the game on a 10-3 run to take the five-point win. Hofstra had battled back to take a 52-50 lead with 3:22 to play.
Boogie Brozoski and Marianne Kalin led Hofstra in scoring with 17 points each. Sica Cuzic had eight points, five rebounds and a team-high five assists. William & Mary's Bianca Boggs led all scorers with 22 points and Hodgson finished with 18. Boggs also had a game-high 10 rebounds.
HOFSTRA'S LAST TIME OUT
Hofstra rallied from an eight-point deficit in the fourth quarter and tied the game late, but the Pride fell just short against the Elon Phoenix, 55-52 at the Schar Center on Thursday evening. Junior forward Marianne Kalin had her most efficient offensive game of the season, as she shot 86 percent from the field (6-of-7) and was a perfect 6-of-6 until her final field goal attempt. Kalin tied for a game-high 12 points and also added five rebounds for the Pride. Junior guard Ana Hernandez Gil was next in scoring with 11 points, and senior guard Boogie Brozoski rounded out the top-three scorers with 10 points and a team-high three assists.
INSIDE THE SERIES
- Hofstra and William & Mary meet for the 43rd time in program history
- Hofstra leads the all-time series, 29-12-1
- The first meeting between the two teams came in just the second season of Hofstra women's basketball's existence, when the two teams tied, 14-14 in the 1938-39 season
- William & Mary defeated Hofstra, 60-55 the last time the two teams met. The teams have split the series the last two seasons. The last time that Hofstra swept the series over the Tribe was in the 2015-16 season
- Krista Kilburn-Steveskey is 19-7 against the Tribe
A WIN OVER WILLIAM & MARY WOULD…
- improve Hofstra's overall record to 10-20 and 4-14 in the CAA
- be the 212th career win for Kilburn-Steveskey
- be the 713th known victory in the history of Hofstra women's basketball and 469th at the NCAA Division I level
SCOUTING THE TRIBE
William & Mary enters the contest against Hofstra with four losses out of the last five games. The one win that William & Mary possesses during the stretch is a triple overtime thriller, 77-72 over Drexel, who continues to hold the nation's No. 1 defense, last week.
Hofstra will be tasked with stopping Bianca Boggs, who is one of the most well-rounded guards in the league. Boggs leads the Tribe in scoring (17.1 ppg), rebounding (6.9 rpg), assists (4.3 apg), steals (68) and blocks (25) and is top-five in the CAA in all of those categories but blocks, where she is top-10. In addition, freshman Eva Hodgson is one of William & Mary's key players, as she recently tied a school record with her fourth CAA Rookie of the Week Award this week, averaging 16.5 points, 4.0 rebounds and 4.0 assists in the Tribe's 1-1 week.
Finally, William & Mary enters the matchup as the top three-point shooting team in the conference this season. The Tribe currently sinks 7.4 three-pointers per game and is second in three-point field goal percentage (.351). The Green and Gold is hitting three-pointers at the highest clip under head coach Ed Swanson and has had five or more three-pointers in 25 of 28 games. Furthermore, W&M has hit more than 10 three-pointers in seven games this season. Harper Birdsong shoots the three-ball most often on the Tribe with 50 made three-pointers out of 128 attempts for a mark of .391, while Hodgson leads the team in three-point percentage (.400).
SCOUTING THE PRIDE
After shooting a season-best 89 percent from the field,
Marianne Kalin will need to continue the dominance into a very guard-heavy William & Mary team. Hofstra will also look for solid interior performances from
Jaylen Hines,
Caria Reynolds, and
Mikiyah Croskey. All four of the above had made solid contributions to the Pride as of late, particularly Reynolds has shot 12-of-16 (.750) over the last four games. Recently, Croskey had a breakout performance at Delaware with a season-high 13 points against the Blue Hens. In addition to scoring, the forwards will look to out-rebound the Tribe, who is last in the conference with 32.4 boards per game.
Brozoski continues to lead the Pride in scoring with 15.1 points per game. She has reached double figures in 25 of 29 games this season and has reached 10 or more points in four of the last four games, including a 20-point performance at Northeastern on Feb. 24. Senior
Sica Cuzic joins Brozoski as the only other Pride player in double figures, averaging 10.0 points per game, while junior
Ana Hernandez Gil adds 9.1 points per contest.
Hofstra is led by head coach
Krista Kilburn-Steveskey in her 13th season. She has averaged nearly 17 wins per season since arriving on campus in 2006 while posting seven winning seasons and leading the Pride to five appearances in the Women's National Invitation Tournament (WNIT) including two consecutive appearances in 2014-15 and 2015-16. In addition, Kilburn-Steveskey is the winningest coach in Pride history, capturing her 200th win last season against Charleston.
PLAYOFF PICTURE
Hofstra will be the No. 9 seed with a win or a College of Charleston loss at UNCW on Friday evening. Hofstra and Charleston split the head-to-head series, but Hofstra wins any tie-breaker based on a 2-0 record against No. 6 Northeastern.
UP NEXT
Hofstra will prepare for the CAA tournament that is set to take place at the University of Delaware, March 13-16. Stay tuned to the Hofstra women's basketball schedule page for the most up-to-date seeding and opponent information.
