Men’s Basketball Drops Home Game to Hofstra

Thursday, February 20

Daskalakis Athletic Center

7 p.m.

Drexel University

13-15,6-9CAA

Hofstra

21-7,12-3CAA

Hofstra

Drexel

Photo by: Greg Carroccio/Sideline Photos

Men’s Basketball Drops Home Game to Hofstra

2/20/2020 9:29:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

PHILADELPHIA – Conference-leading Hofstra topped Drexel, 81-74, at the Daskalakis Athletic Center on Thursday night. The Pride (21-7, 12-3 CAA) scored 47 points in the second half and received 20-point scoring efforts from Desure Buie and Isaac Kante. The Dragons (13-15, 6-9) led by one point at the break and claimed a pair of 20-point scorers themselves in James Butler and Zach Walton.

Butler came tantalizing close to a triple-double with 23 points, 14 rebounds and a personal-best nine assists on 10-of-15 shooting. The 23 points also matched a career-high for the junior forward.

Those 14 rebounds gave Butler 329 this season and propelled him into eighth place in Drexel's single-season rebounding list. He is just one board shy of Malik Rose's total of 330 in the 1992-93 season and is 11 away from joining the top five.

Walton scored 21 points and chipped in a pair of assists and blocks each.

Buie played the full 40 minutes for Hofstra and turned in a game-high 26 points with six assists and three steals.

Thursday's high-scoring night saw both teams make over half of their attempts from the field. Drexel held a slight edge in field goal percentage (.525) over Hofstra (.519), but the Pride carried the day at the foul line. HU made 24 trips to the line on Thursday and made 21 – a clip of 87.5 percent. Kante made all eight of his free throws in a 20-point, six-rebound outing.

Drexel led by a point at the break, 35-34, behind a combined 24 points on 66.7-percent shooting from Walton and Butler. Butler had the initial hot hand and scored 10 of Drexel's first 17 points on perfect 5-for-5 shooting. Walton led the Dragons into the break, scoring the last six of their points in the half, and finished the first 20 minutes with 14.

Neither side could take control early as the teams traded baskets for the first four minutes. Hofstra was the first to string together consecutive baskets and led 11-7 with 15:59 to play.

From there, the Dragons and Pride went from trading buckets to trading runs. Drexel took its first lead of the night behind an 8-0 run. Butler scored the first six before assisting on a Walton layup to put the Dragons on top, 15-11.

After Walton's basket, Drexel fell silent for over three minutes, and Hofstra regained the lead on the strength of a 9-0 run. Down 20-15, Butler ender the drought with a layup at the 10:14 mark, and the sides went back to exchanging field goals.

The Pride advantage hovered between two and five points until the Dragons scored on three-straight possessions to regain the lead. The Butler-Walton connection paid dividends once more as Butler found Walton under the basket for a layup that keyed Drexel's 7-0 run. Mate Okros added a three-pointer before Camren Wynter's transition layup gave the Dragons a 29-26 lead with five minutes to play.

Drexel's lead held until a pair of foul shots from Buie put the Pride in front, 32-31, with 1:38 left in the opening half. Walton restored the Dragons' advantage with 1:14 to play only for Buie to swing the pendulum back to Hofstra 17 seconds later. Walton scored the final basket of the half, his third-straight for the Dragons, to send the home team to the intermission with a 35-34 lead.

The Dragons cooled off in the second half, and their field goal percentage dipped to .471 after the break. The Pride stayed above the 50-percent mark in the second and began marching to the free throw line. Hofstra attempted 19 foul shots in the second, making 17 (.895).

Hofstra trailed 41-38 with 18:13 left in the second before the first of several runs. The Pride scored six unanswered to regain the lead, 44-41. A Buie layup at the 17:32 mark put Hofstra in front, and the Pride would trail for just 23 more seconds.

A three-point play from Walton tied the score at 46-46 with 15:54 – one of five times the Dragons tied the score in the half. Each time Hofstra had an answer, but Drexel prevented the Pride from pulling away until late.

Wynter flipped the switch in the second and scored eight-straight points for the Dragons to keep them within a possession of their guests. He sunk his first trey of the night at the 14:07 mark to make it a one-point game then buried another long-range shot less than three minutes later to knot the score at 54-54. The sophomore's scoring binge ended with 10:49 remaining and his team behind, 57-56. Wynter netted 14 of his 16 points in the second half and ended the night with seven assists and four rebounds.

A 6-0 run gave the Dragons a brief lead, 67-65, with under five minutes to play. Butler factored into each of the three scoring plays. He keyed the spurt with an offensive rebound and assist to Wynter, who returned the favor with an assist on the next trip down the floor. Lastly, he found Walton in the paint to put the Dragons ahead with 4:56 to play.

Hofstra went back ahead on the next possession behind Eli Pemberton's three-point play and stayed in the lead for good. Butler drew Drexel to within a point, 70-69, at the 3:32 mark, but the Pride ran out on an 8-0 run to seal the win.

Drexel concludes the home portion of its schedule on Saturday at 2 p.m. against Northeastern.