Hempstead, NY – Ema Karim led a quartet of Hofstra women's basketball players in double-digits with a career-high 15 points as the Pride hosted its final home game of the calendar year with an 80-44 win over visiting Marywood.
 
The Pride improves to 2-6 while snapping a five-game losing streak with the win over the Pacers.
 
Karim scored her 15 points on 6-12 from the floor, including 3-6 from downtown, and she added six rebounds and four assists. She was joined in double figure scoring by Emma Von Essen and Chloe Sterling with 11 points apiece, and Alarice Gooden with 10. Deivejon Harris pulled down a team-best seven rebounds to go with her nine points, and she recorded a trio of blocks inside the paint. Von Essen dished out five assists for the home side, and Olivia VanPatten recorded four blocks in the first start of her college career.
 
Sterling sparked an 11-0 run with a three-point play on a layup and free throw at the 7:28 mark, giving the Pride the lead for good as Hofstra never trailed against the Pacers. Marywood closed the gap to seven with four consecutive points, but a jumper by Von Essen and a layup from Harris put the gap back to double-digits before Gooden knocked down the first of her two threes with 2:17 left on the clock to make the lead 14 points. Back-to-back twos by Sterling and Harris after a trio of Marywood free throws gave the Pride a 15-point cushion to end the first quarter.
 
After the Pride lead grew to 16 points at the 6:48 mark on a Kiyanna Blacks-Stewart layup, Marywood cut the deficit to nine with seven unanswered points. After calling a timeout at 5:30 to reset, Ayen Angoi scored the next six Hofstra points to put the lead back at double-digits with 2:11 before the break. A three by Sterling and free throws from Gooden and Angoi inside the final two minutes put the score at 39-19 heading into halftime.
 
The scoring continued for Hofstra with the first six points of the third quarter thanks to baskets by Karim, Gooden, and Von Essen before Marywood could respond. The Pride's lead stayed in the 20s for the entire third quarter before the horn sounded with the home team on top, 56-31, before growing to 31 inside the first two minutes of the fourth quarter with a 9-3 run, with Karim sinking consecutive threes and Harris registering three points of her own. The Pride outscored Marywood 15-10 to close out the game with the 36-point win.
 
Ali Griscavage led Marywood with 16 points, and Megan Cavoli pulled down a team-leading seven rebounds against Hofstra.
 
Hofstra travels 17 miles west to face St. John's on Saturday, December 13, at 2 p.m. for the first of five consecutive road games.
 
NOTES:
-The Pride recorded eight blocks against Marywood. They are the most blocks by the Pride in a game during the Danielle Santos Atkinson era and the most in a game since blocking eight against Northeastern on March 3, 2018.
-Hofstra held Marywood to 1-20 (5%) on three-point field goals while going 8-26 (30.8%).
-Hofstra outrebounded Marywood 51-33. It's the first time Hofstra pulled down 50 or more rebounds in a game since January 10, 2025 against Charleston.
-Hofstra improves to 19-2 under Santos Atkinson when scoring 70 or more points.
-This was the first meeting between Hofstra and Marywood.