HEMPSTEAD, N.Y.- The Sacred Heart men's basketball team held an eleven point second half lead, but could not hold on late in an 80-73 loss at Hofstra on Monday night. The Pioneers will head into Northeast Conference play with a ten straight loss to end the non-conference schedule at 1-10. 

After a Jordan Allen layup gave SHU a 65-58 lead with 8:42 remaining, Hofstra ended the game on a 22-8 run. It began with six straight points over the next 1:33, as Juan'ya Green's layup pulled the Pride within one, 65-64, for the first time since the 5:49 mark of the first half. Eyimofe Edukugho hit 1-2 from the line the next time down the floor to momentarily put the Pioneers back up two, but Brian Bernardi hit three-pointers on consecutive trips down the floor, just 41 seconds apart, to spark eight unanswered ending with another Green layup for a 72-66 advantage with 4:27 remaining. 

Sacred Heart would pull as close as three twice, with Edukugho going 2-2 from the stripe at the 3:05 mark and again after a contested three by Matej Buovac with just 1:20 to, but each time Hofstra answered to make it a two-possession game. Following the Buovac triple, Green made all four of his free throws in the final 59 seconds of the game, and the Pioneers would fail to score the remainder of the contest.

Cane Broome led all scorers with 25 points, 18 of which came before the half, and added a team-high eight rebounds. Edukugho poured in a new career-high 17 points in 16 minutes, just five points shy of his output from the entire season entering the game, on a near perfect 6-7 from the field and 5-6 from the stripe. Jordan Allen added 11 points and a team-high four assists. Sean Hoehn also had a team-high four assists and a career-high six rebounds, while Buovac joined Broome in grabbing eight rebounds, a new season-high.  

20 of Green's team-high 22 points came in the second half. He went 10-13 from the free throw line and dished out a game-high six assists. Bernardi contributed 18 points, while Rokas Gustys finished with a double double of 17 points and ten rebounds.

Even though Sacred Heart outshot Hofstra, 48.3 to 41.9 percent, the Pride, led by Green, made more than double the free throws of SHU, 20-9. The Pioneers shot just 56.3 percent from the line,  and were held to 39.3 percent shooting in the second half. 

Sacred Heart opens NEC play with the annual Pennsylvania road trip, beginning at Robert Morris on Saturday 4 pm.

Noteworthy

• SHU used its fifth different starting lineup of the season. The Pioneers used just four all of last season
• Edukugho came into the game having not scored in SHU's last seven games dating back to the UMass Lowell game on November 18
• The Sacred Heart bench, led by Edukugho, scored its highest percentage of points, 23 for 68.5 percent, of the season

Inside the Numbers

• Sacred Heart outscored Hofstra in the pain, 42-32
• The rebounding battle was a near stalemate, with SHU grabbing one more 38-37.

How it Happened

• First Half
  • Broome scored the first seven Sacred Heart points
  • Sacred Heart had four two-point leads early, the last coming when Hoehn's three-pointer made it 10-8 3:23 in
  • Gustys scored nine straight points for Hofstra at one point, the final a layup at the 9:34 mark to give the Pride fifth and final four point lead of the first half, 23-19
  • The Pioneers momentarily tied it with four straight points, but an Ameen Tanksley triple gave the Pride their final lead of the half, 26-24, with 8:05 remaining
  • SHU would score six unanswered over the next 2:06, all by Broome, to go ahead 30-26
  • Tanksley answered with another trifecta just ten seconds later to pull within one, but Sacred Heart would respond with the next seven points to cap a 13-3 run for its largest lead, 37-29, capped by Allen's three-point play with 3:56 left
  • Hofstra came back with six straight points and would get as close as two twice, the second time coming when Green made 2-2 from the line just 1:37 before the half
  • Broome scored the final basket of the half, a layup 28 seconds later, to give the Pioneers a 41-37 lead going into the break

• Second Half
  •  Sacred Heart scored the first seven points of the half, taking its largest lead of the (game), 48-37, on Cole Walton's lone basket of the game just 1:44 in
  • Edukugho matched that 11-point lead with a layup just 33 seconds later
  • After Edukugho put SHU up ten, 52-42, points on a layup with 16:44 to go, Hofstra scored six in a row over the next 1:59 to pull within four on a Gustys layup (14:45)
  • The lead would stay three and six for the next 6:03, until Allen made a layup for a 65-58 advantage with 8:42 remaining