Hofstra's rally falls short against Princeton

Speedy Claxton told an obvious truth: He has a new team. And it is going to take time before it rounds into shape.

“I’m proud of the way we played,” Claxton said after Hofstra’s 74-67 loss to Princeton at Mack Sports and Exhibition Complex on Friday night. “We’re going to get better as the season goes along.’’

Trailing 30-29 at the half, Hofstra was outscored 12-2 in the first four minutes of the second half and its deficit grew to 53-41 with 10 minutes left.

Griffin Barrouk drilled a three-pointer with 7:52 remaining and Darlinstone Dubar’s breakaway dunk with 7:04 left cut Princeton’s lead to 53-46.

When Dubar hit two free throws with 1:47 left, Hofstra closed to within 65-60.

But Blake Peters made four free throws and Matt Allocco hit two more in the final half-minute to seal the win for the Tigers.

Dubar led the Pride with 18 points. “He is going to be a big piece of what we do here,” Claxton said. “We are going to need that from him on a nightly basis.”

Both the Pride and the Tigers were coming off season-opening wins. Hofstra blew out Division III St. Joseph’s (L.I.), 101-48, on Monday and Princeton outlasted Rutgers, 68-61.

That the Tigers beat a Big Ten opponent should not have been a surprise — not after becoming only the fourth 15 seed to reach the Sweet 16 last March.

So yes, the game was going to be a step up in weight class for the Pride. That’s a reality that Claxton acknowledged.

“That’s a really good team,” he said. “They went to the Sweet 16 last year. They’re going to beat a lot of teams just like they beat Rutgers the other night. We didn’t lose to any bums.”

Indeed, Princeton (2-0) shot 44.4% from the field (24-for-54) and 82.4% from the foul line (14-for-17) in defeating the Pride (1-1).

“We had a little bit of trouble keeping them in front of us,” Jaquan Carlos said.

The Tigers had four players score in double figures. Caden Pierce recorded a double-double with 26 points and 15 rebounds. Peters scored 15 points, Xaivian Lee 14 and Allocco 13.

“He drove the ball against our five,’’ Claxton said of Pierce. “That was the game plan going into the game. We we had to live with something, so we wanted to make him beat us, and unfortunately, tonight he did. The kid had a great game. Hats off to him.’’

Stony Brook 91, St. Joseph’s (L.I.) 50: Jared Fry had 19 points and six rebounds to pace the host Seawolves (1-1). Toby Onyekonwu added 16 points and seven rebounds. Fry scored eight points during a 15-2 run midway through the first half to turn a 12-7 deficit into a 22-14 lead. Spencer Molloy had 10 points and eight rebounds to lead St. Joseph’s (0-1).