Tyler Thomas' last-second shot lifts Hofstra past Stony Brook

The season’s first “Battle of Long Island” on Stony Brook’s court in January had a ring of tension in the final minute before Hofstra prevailed.

The sequel on Hofstra’s court Thursday night? Well, it was extremely tense at the end after Hofstra climbed out of a 13-point hole from earlier in the second half.

Tyler Thomas relieved the tension for the Pride, hitting a jumper from about 15 feet away on the left baseline with four-tenths of a second left to cap a 26-point effort and give Hofstra a 72-71 win.

That shot allowed the Pride to rebound from Saturday’s 81-78 loss at Monmouth and move to 12-10 overall and 5-4 in the CAA.

“I lit into them pretty good there, and they responded,” coach Speedy Claxton said. “I’m proud of them.”

The Seawolves will have to try to respond now. They fell to 11-11 and 4-5 in the conference despite 18 points from Aaron Clarke and 17 from Tyler Stephenson-Moore.

“A really, really brutal ending,” coach Geno Ford said. “We had the game won and just didn’t finish it. Those are always a little harder for you to take. We made a lot of big plays to get ourselves in position to win the game. I’ve got to give the kid [Thomas] credit.”

This is Stony Brook’s second season in the CAA after leaving the America East and Ford’s fifth season in charge. This was the final year of his contract, but he has received a two-year extension.

“I signed it in December,” Ford told Newsday. “ . . . Listen, it’s a great place. To make the jump that we made in leagues, to go from a low-major conference to one of the best mid-major leagues in the country that’s had top 25 teams, we’ve got to continue to get better.

“I think we’ve been on a good trajectory through the first two years . . . It’s a hard jump.”

Hofstra has always been a hard obstacle for Stony Brook to clear. The Pride have won 28 of the teams’ 34 meetings dating to 1973, including four in a row and nine of the last 10.

They rallied from eight down in the second half on Jan. 22 before beating the Seawolves, 80-74.

The deficit was deeper this time, but they prevailed again.

Thomas hit two free throws to give Hofstra a 66-64 lead with two minutes left. Dean Noll countered with a three-pointer to hand Stony Brook the lead.

Then Clarke knocked down a mid-range jumper from the right side to make it 69-66 Seawolves with 30.4 seconds on the clock.

Jacco Fritz scored from in close for the Pride and was fouled on the play at 16.8, but he missed the free throw. Keenan Fitzmorris grabbed the rebound for Stony Brook, was fouled at 15.2 and made both shots for a 71-68 edge.

Fritz put in an offensive rebound — 71-70, 7.9 seconds remaining. Clarke was fouled with seven seconds left and missed the front end of the one-and-one before Thomas canned his winning jumper.

“We got the nasty taste out of our mouth from Monmouth,’’ he said. “ . . . It was a great feeling.”

Stony Brook built a 44-31 lead 1:33 into the second half, but the margin began to shrink.

German Plotnikov lent a very hot hand, helping Hofstra get back in play. He went 5-for-5 from the floor, including 3-for-3 on threes, and scored 14 of his 17 in the second half.

“Speedy keep telling me to . . . shoot the ball,” Plotnikov said.

Earlier, it had been the Seawolves with the hot hands. They went 8-for-14 on threes en route to taking a 41-31 lead at the break.

“Hats off to them,” Claxton said. “They really shot it well tonight.”