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Sunday, February 18, 2007
Crusaders come up short
(Originally posted Sat, at 6 p.m., links added at 6:59 a.m.)
Carlos Rivera played Hempstead hero in Hofstra's BracketBusters win over Holy Cross.

It was there for the taking. After trailing since midway through the first half, Holy Cross took a 64-63 lead on an Eric Meister tip-in with 1:36 to play. Twice the Crusaders (20-8) came up with defensive stops and had a chance to extend that one-point lead. Each time they failed, allowing Hofstra to sneak back for a 65-64 win.

Rivera was the hero, making a pair of free throws with 1.7 seconds left to give Hofstra (20-8) the lead, then blocking a Keith Simmons jumper at the buzzer that would have given HC the win.

It might not have come down to that had Meister hit a pair of free throws with 18 seconds left, when HC was still up by one. An earlier opportunity to extend that lead ended when Torey Thomas drove baseline and had the ball knocked out of bounds off of him.

The Crusaders, who were 25 of 50 from the field before their final possession, got the ball in the right guy's hands, with Meister, in the game replacing Tim Clifford, who fouled out with 6:45 to play, finding Simmons with the long inbounds pass. Simmons caught the ball just inside the arc, but Ruiz got a hand of his 17-footer to preserve the Hofstra win.

Simmons led all scorers, finishing with 22. Thomas added 16 points and 6 steals. Clifford finished with 11 points and 5 rebounds before fouling out when he picked up a pair of fouls in a 17-second span in the second half. Simmons played a total of 29 minutes before being disqualified.

The Crusaders hit 25 of 51 from the field(49 percent), 4 of 14 three-pointers. HC was 10 for 16 at the foul line, four of the misses coming from the freshman, Meister, who was 0 for 4.

Rivera led Hofstra with 19 points, including four treys (on five attempts). Antoine Agudio also had 19 for the Pride. Loren Stokes added 16.

Hofstra shot 55.8 percent (24 of 43) from the field against Holy Cross, 7 of 12 from the arc. The Pride struggled at the free throw line, making 10 of 20.
Box score | Newsday | Telegram & Gazette

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Published at 6:59 AM by Hoop Time.
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