Hopefully Linda Fiorentino is the closest Rosemont gets to yelling "Gotcha" today. Also I totally rented this movie in the '80s. Google it Crain!
The Flying Dutchmen once again reminded everyone who Long Island’s team really is as they defended the Island — can you defend something that no one else ever claimed? — by beating the pesky little wanna-be big program from SUNY-Stony Brook, 71-64. The Dutchmen will look to extend their winning streak to seven games this afternoon, when they inexplicably host Division III Rosemont at the Arena. They really better extend their winning streak to seven games this afternoon. Here’s a look back at the win over SUNY-Stony Brook and a look ahead to *Googles Rosemont’s nickname* the Ravens.
THE MOST RECENT GAME SUMMARIZED IN ONE PARAGRAPH
Justin Wright-Foreman scored a game-high 25 points, including the first five of a 10-0 run late in the first half that gave the Dutchmen the lead for good as they continued their dominance over SUNY-Stony Brook in all sports. Tareq Coburn scored 16 points, including the first five of an 8-0 run that gave the Dutchmen a double-digit lead early in the second half. Coburn added eight rebounds. SUNY-Stony Brook got as close as two points with a little more than eight minutes to play, but Wright-Foreman drained a 3-pointer on the Dutchmen’s next possession and SUNY-Stony Brook never got within a possession again. Jacquil Taylor (10 points, 12 rebounds) registered his first double-double for the Dutchmen while Desure Buie had 12 points and four assists.
3 STARS OF THE GAME (vs. SUNY-Stony Brook 12/19)
3: Justin Wright-Foreman
2: Tareq Coburn
1: Jacquil Taylor
SEASON STANDINGS
Justin Wright-Foreman 34
Eli Pemberton 12
Tareq Coburn 10
Desure Buie 7
Jalen Ray 4
Jacquil Taylor 2
Stafford Trueheart 2
Dan Dwyer 1
COACHSPEAK: “It’s a pleasure to be coaching these guys. It’s a great group. They want to do well. They want to win. We’re having fun out there.”
WAS THIS A UNICORN SCORE?
No! The Dutchmen won at least once previously by a score of 71-64 on Feb. 23, 2011, when they went on the road and beat UNC Wilmington. The Dutchmen have posted three unicorn scores this season.
NOT-SO-RANDOM SELECTION FROM THE 1993-94 JUKEBOX
Oh what a night, late December out at SUNY-SB… (This was a re-release in 1993, it counts!)
DOESN’T A RIVALRY INVOLVE BOTH SIDES WINNING?
With Wednesday’s win, the Dutchmen improved to 22-5 all-time against SUNY-Stony Brook, including 4-1 since the series resumed in 2014. The Dutchmen have won three straight games between the two schools.
In addition, Hofstra is now 20-17-1 in all sports against SUNY-Stony Brook since the two schools began scheduling each other again in the spring of 2014, including 15-6-1 since the 2016-17 school year began. Lastly, and most resoundingly, Hofstra is 102-47-5 all-time in games and matches contested in sports still offered by both schools (good news SUNY-Stony Brook, you don’t have to count all those times Hofstra smoked you in football!).
WE’RE GOING STREAKING
The Dutchmen won their sixth straight game Wednesday. It is the longest winning streak for the program since an eight-game run during the 2015-16 season and the 47th time in school history the Dutchmen have won at least six straight games.
ALL BY HIMSELF
With his game-high 25 points against SUNY-Stony Brook, Justin Wright-Foreman extended his streak of double-digit scoring efforts to 65 straight games, the most by a Hofstra player since 1989-90 (as far back as my records go, at least at home). In addition, Wright-Foreman’s streak is now the second-longest active streak in Division I, per Hofstra SID Stephen Gorchov.
Justin Wright-Foreman: 64 straight games 12/11/16-present
Charles Jenkins 58 straight games 12/12/09-3/15/11***
Antoine Agudio 48 straight games 3/6/06-1/17/08****
Juan’ya Green: 43 straight games 11/14/14-12/9/15
Loren Stokes 41 straight games 2/20/06-3/14/07***
Loren Stokes: 34 straight games 1/14/04-1/31/05
***streak ended with the end of the player’s Hofstra career
****Agudio had three DNPs during his streak
JWF IS A TOP TEN HIT
Justin Wright-Foreman moved into ninth place on the all-time Hofstra scoring list Wednesday night, when his 25 points vaulted him past Norman Richardson. It was the first time Wright-Foreman climbed a spot in the rankings since Nov. 14, a span of eight games. To be fair, Wright-Foreman ended that game against North Carolina A&T needing 223 points to surpass Richardson. He is 132 points away from eighth-place David Taylor, so Wright-Foreman will probably spend multiple games in ninth place. Probably.
8.) David Taylor 1,818 (1979-83)
9.) JUSTIN WRIGHT-FOREMAN 1,687 (2015-present)
10.) Norman Richardson 1,677 (1997-2001)
11.) Frank Walker 1,437 (1985-89)
12.) Leroy Allen 1,435 (1983-87)
JWF VS. LAUREL
A season after scoring 755 points, an average of 24.4 points per game, Justin Wright-Foreman has scored 308 points in 12 games, an average of 25.7 points per game. The latter figure would be the highest average by a Hofstra player since Rich Laurel averaged a program-record 30.3 points per game during the 1976-77 season.
With that in mind, I looked up Newsday from the 1976-77 season on microfilm (GOOGLE IT CRAIN) to try and track the game-by-game progress of both Laurel and Wright-Foreman. And there were box scores from all 30 games! This made me unnaturally happy.
Anyway, here are Laurel’s totals through the first 12 games of the 1976-77 season, a stretch in which he collected 349 points and averaged 29.1 points per game.
vs. C.W. Post 11/27: 25 pts
vs. Dowling 11/28: 14 pts
vs. Temple 12/2: 26 pts
vs. CCNY 12/4: 29 pts
vs. Duquesne 12/10: 29 pts
vs. Southern Illinois 12/11: 31 pts
vs. St. Francis (NY) 12/16: 43 pts
vs. Rhode Island 12/18: 37 pts
vs. Catholic 12/20: 31 pts
vs. Villanova 12/27: 23 pts
vs. Montana State 12/28: 29 pts
vs. St. Francis (PA) 1/5: 32 pts
ELI MOVIN’ ON UP
Eli Pemberton, the newest member of the Hofstra 1,000-point club, scored four points Wednesday before exiting early in the second half with an undisclosed injury. However, the four points were enough to lift him into a tie with Percy Johnson for 34th place on the all-time scoring list. Health permitting, Pemberton enters today within striking distance of Darius Burton for 33rd place (16 points) and Derrick Flowers for 32nd place (25 points).
32.) Derrick Flowers 1,069 (1987-91)
33.) Darius Burton 1,060 (1993-97)
34t.) ELI PEMBERTON 1,045 (2016-present)
34t.) Percy Johnson 1,045 (1950-53)
36.) Jim Shaffer 1,022 (1991-95)
37.) John Irving 1,018 (1974-77)
A DESURE THING
Desure Buie drained all six of his free throw attempts Wednesday night and has hit his last 28 free throws dating back to Nov. 11. Buie’s streak is the third-longest of the Joe Mihalich Era (2013-present), ranking behind only Brian Bernardi, who sank 32 straight free throws during the 2016-17 season, and Justin Wright-Foreman, who hit 31 straight free throws spanning the 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons.
Brian Bernardi, 32-for-32 (12/11/16-2/25/17)
Justin Wright-Foreman, 31-for-31 (2/11/17-11/10/17)***
DESURE BUIE, 28-for-28 (11/11/18-present)
Juan’ya Green 24-for-24 (11/22/15-12/6/15)
Dion Nesmith 23-for-23 (11/25/14-1/13/15)
***Wright-Foreman hit his final 29 free throw attempts of the 2016-17 season and his first two attempts of the 2017-18 season
For the season, Buie is shooting a robust 94.3 percent (33-of-35) from the line, which ranked ninth nationally in the country entering Friday’s games. At his current rate, Buie would break the Hofstra single-season record for free throw percentage of 91.3 percent, which was set by Steve Nisenson during the 1963-64 season. Nisenson and Brian Appel (90.5 percent during the 1977-78 season) are the only players to shoot at least 90 percent from the line over a full season for the Dutchmen (minimum two free throws made per game).
THE BEST THINGS IN LIFE ARE FREE (which unfortunately was released in 1992)
It’s early, but you’re not wrong if you’re thinking you’ve never seen a Dutchmen team shoot free throws this well. The Dutchmen were 13-of-18 from the line against SUNY-Stony Brook, which actually dropped their season-long percentage to 80.4 percent. But that was, and I can’t believe I’m typing these words, still the best percentage in the country entering Friday’s games. The Dutchmen rank just ahead of Incarnate Word (80.2 percent), The rest of the top five is Toledo (80.1 percent), Charlotte (79.1 percent) and Nicholls State (78.5 percent). At this rate, the Dutchmen would shatter the program record for free throw percentage set by the 2010-11 team, which drained 76.1 percent of its free throws.
In addition, as reader Evan Jones notes, the Dutchmen are just a hair behind the pace set last season by William & Mary, which set the single-season CAA record by shooting .810 from the free throw line. Technically, the Tribe were at 81.049 percent (479-for-591).
Last year’s Dutchmen shot 68.2 percent from the free throw line. But subtracting Rokas Gustys’ performance (45-of-120, 37.5 percent), the Dutchmen would have shot 74.7 percent, which would have been the third-best single-season mark in program history.
OVER THE AIR
Hofstra will carry live audio and video of today’s game and offer live stats here.
ROSEMONT AND HOFSTRA VS. NON-DIVISION I FOES
Rosemont is a Division III school located in Lower Merion, PA. Per Google Maps, Rosemont is located 127 miles from Hofstra. The things you learn here! The Ravens play in the Colonial States Athletic Conference, which I assume means this game can be used for tiebreaker purposes in the Colonial Athletic Association.
Hofstra will be the second straight Division I opponent for Rosemont, which fell to 3-6 by losing to Lafayette, 95-54, on Wednesday night. Hey, if the Ravens played Princeton, they’d complete the VBK triple play!
Rosemont was picked to finish first in the CSAC. The Ravens’ leading scorer is Basil Thompson (18.5 ppg) while their leading rebounder is senior Jalil Myers (9.0 rpg).
There is no line on this game, because even degenerate gamblers do not bet on Division I vs. non-Division I games. Hofstra is 10-2 against the spread this season.
Hofstra and Rosemont have never met in any sport, but you probably knew that.
The Flying Dutchmen have won their last 18 games against non-Division I foes dating back to a 70-54 loss to Florida Southern during the 1988-89 seasons. This inexplicably marks the fourth straight season in which the Dutchmen have faced a non-Division I foe. The Dutchmen beat Division II Molloy, 107-72, on Nov. 30, 2017.
THINGS YOU CAN SHOUT ON TWITTER IF CALLS GO DO NOT GO HOFSTRA’S WAY
Linda Fiorentino bias! (The actress from such ‘80s gems as “Gotcha” graduated from Rosemont)
Kobe Bryant hometown bias! (The repugnant ex-Lakers star grew up in Lower Merion)
Rosemont is a sled bias! (It’s not, but it sounds funny)
This shouldn’t be that difficult bias! (Let’s hope not)
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