Pride tips Bears in overtime Hofstra grabs wild win

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ORONO – After his senior star scored 27 points in the second half and overtime, and after his other seniors pitched in by hitting big shots, scrambling after loose balls – and, perhaps most importantly, grabbing nearly every big rebound – Hofstra coach Jay Wright had a simple reason for a key late-season win.

It wasn’t strategy that propelled his Pride to an 89-83 overtime men’s basketball win over the University of Maine. It wasn’t gimmicks. It wasn’t even his team’s vaunted defense.

“All I told them after the game was we have great players who care for each other and play together,” Wright said. “That’s all there was. There was no coaching … that was a players’ game. No coaching there.”

The Black Bears spotted Hofstra an 11-point lead in the early going, rallied to take control of the game for much of the middle portion of the game, and eventually succumbed to the red-hot shooting of Norman Richardson and the opportunistic Pride.

Maine dropped to 16-8, 9-6 in America East play, while league-leading Hofstra improved to 21-4, 14-2, with its fifth straight win over the Bears.

Richardson scored a career-high 34 points, including 14 over the final 4:20 of regulation and the extra period. He made seven of nine field goal attempts after a seven-point first-half effort, but never really felt he was on fire.

“I just tried to be aggressive throughout the game,” Richardson said. “I didn’t even know I had 27 in the second half. I had no feeling [that I was hot] or nothing. I was just playing.”

Rick Apodaca added 19, Roberto Gittens scored 16 points, and Jason Hernandez tossed in 14 for the Pride.

Carvell Ammons led the Bears with 20 points and 11 rebounds. Tory Cavalieri added 16 points and seven assists, Julian Dunkley scored 16 more, Huggy Dye contributed 12 and Errick Green scored 10.

Hofstra trailed 67-59 with 6:40 to go before tossing a 10-2 spurt at the Bears and tying the game.

Richardson scored seven of those points, including a fading 19-footer from the left wing that knotted it at 69-69 with 3:45 to go.

Hofstra pulled ahead by three points at 75-72 on two Richardson free throws at the 1:33 mark before Ammons answered.

Ammons nailed two free throws with 1:20 to play and made one of two with 42.8 ticks left to tie the game again. A wild Hofstra flurry as time expired didn’t result in a hoop, and the teams headed to overtime.

In the extra period, Rick Apodaca (14 points) hit a 3-pointer to stake the Pride to a 78-75 lead in the first minute, and Maine was never able to draw even again.

Ammons had two chances to make big hoops in the period, but missed a wide-open layup off a nifty Cavalieri feed with 1:37 to go, and missed a putback of a Cavalieri miss at the 1:00 mark. Either shot would have given UMaine an 82-81 lead.

Ammons did make two free throws to pull the Bears within 84-82 with 30 seconds to go in overtime, but the Pride made five of six from the line after that to ice the win.

Ammons was hard on himself after the win.

“I had three chances I felt that I could have won the game for us,” Ammons said. “I feel bad. I feel like I let my team down.”

Cavalieri wasn’t willing to let Ammons take the blame.

“I don’t care what he says,” Cavalieri said. “He’s our go-to guy down low. I don’t think there’s any big man in the league who can stop him.”

UMaine coach John Giannini said, “We had opportunities and we didn’t take advantage of them,” Giannini said. “I told the team that all of us will go through harder things than this in our lives, and it’s a test of our character. We’ve got to come back tomorrow and get ready for senior day against Drexel [on Saturday].”

Pride 89, Black Bears 83 (OT)

Hofstra (21-4) Maine (16-8)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Springfield 3 5 0 2 6 Dunkley 5 9 16

Gittens 5 9 6 10 16 Greene 5 9 10

Hernandez 5 10 3 7 14 Jackson 2 8 4

Richardson 10 14 11 13 34 Dye 5 14 12

Apodaca 5 14 4 4 19 Ammons 6 15 11 20

Suarez 0 0 0 0 0 Cavalieri 6 12 1 2 16

Sylla 0 0 0 0 0 Haynes 1 2 5

Walker 0 2 0 0 0

Grubler 0 1 0 0 0

Totals 28 55 24 36 89 Totals 30 69 17 24 83

Hofstra 36 75 89

Maine 42 75 83

3-pt. goals: Hofstra (9-18): Hernandez 1-4, Richardson 3-6, Apodaca 5-7, Walker 0-1; Maine (6-13): Dunkley 1-3, Dye 1-5, Cavalieri 3-4, Haynes 1-1

Attendance: 3,431