Wilmington, NC - In arguably the biggest game of the season to date, Darlinstone Dubar returned to his home state and poured in a game-high 28 points to lead the Hofstra men's basketball team to a huge 69-58 win over UNCW on Thursday evening at Trask Coliseum. 

Jaquan Carlos added 18 points, six rebounds, and five assists for Hofstra, which also got 13 points from Tyler Thomas. 

Hofstra is playing its best basketball of the season as the regular season nears its end. The Pride has won four straight, eight of its last nine, and 11 of its last 13 games to improve to 19-11 overall and 12-5 in CAA play. The Pride finished the month of February with an 8-1 record. UNCW dropped to 20-9 and 11-6 in the league with the loss. 

A 7-0 scoring run in the first half turned a 6-5 Pride lead into a 13-5 lead after a pair of free throws from Thomas. The Pride stayed in front the entirety of the opening half and two baskets from Carlos in the final 2:30 of the first 20 minutes allowed Hofstra to take a seven-point lead into the break. 

Hofstra used a 9-2 run early in the second stanza to open up a 43-30 lead with 16:18 remaining. Dubar had four points during the run that gave the Pride its largest lead of the game to that point. It didn't take long for UNCW to respond, though, and the Seahawks scored 14 straight points to take their first lead of the contest at 44-43 with 10:58 left. The home team would lead 47-45 nearly a minute later before Hofstra flexed its muscle and took over. 

Dubar would almost single-handedly take over the game and start a 16-1 run with a three-pointer at the 9:42 mark. Dubar totaled nine points during the run that pushed the Pride's lead to 61-48 with 5:13 left in the contest. 

The lead would not get under 10 the rest of the way as Hofstra picked up the important road victory. 

Jacco Fritz added six points and eight rebounds for the Pride, which held UNCW to its second-lowest scoring output of the season. 

Trazarien White had 13 points and five rebounds for UNCW, while Shykeim Phillips added 11 points and five assists and KJ Jenkins chipped in with 10 points. 


Hofstra will close the regular season on Saturday when it travels to Charleston for a 2 p.m. contest. That game will air on FloHoops. 

NOTES
- Hofstra is 27-24 all-time against UNCW. The Pride has won three of the last four and seven of the last nine meetings in the series. 
- Hofstra has won 16 of its last 21 and 19 of its last 25 road games in CAA play. 
- Hofstra has won 54 consecutive games when allowing fewer than 60 points in a game. 
- Over the past 10 seasons, Hofstra is 114-20 in games in which they hold their opponent under 70 points. 
- Over the past seven seasons, Hofstra is 35-10 on Thursdays. 
- Under Speedy Claxton, Hofstra is now 24-3 in the month of February - including the aforementioned 8-1 record this season. 
- With his five assists tonight, Carlos now has 381 career assists to move into eighth place all-time in program history. He passed Loren Stokes, who had 377 assists from 2003-07. 
- Hofstra improved to 11-2 with German Plotnikov in the starting lineup. 
- Dubar moved his Hofstra career scoring total to 1,275 but did not move up any spots in the all-time list. He ranks 22nd in program history. Thomas now has 1,241 career Hofstra points to move into 23rd place all-time in program history.