CJ Luster II blocks late shot, scores 26 points to help Stony Brook beat Hofstra

CJ Luster II bounced.

Once. Twice.

And then yelled.

Moments earlier, the Stony Brook sophomore guard had leaped at Hofstra’s Cruz Davis, who had taken a corner three-pointer with the Pride trailing by four points. The ball left Davis’ hands, only to be deflected by Luster.

“That might be the first block of his life,” Stony Brook coach Geno Ford quipped a few minutes after Luster’s defensive play with four seconds remaining clinched the Seawolves’ 80-75 win over Hofstra on Saturday afternoon at the David S. Mack Sports and Exhibition Complex.

“He probably wants the highlight,” Ford said. “Because I don’t think he’s had one since playing Nerf ball when he was 7.”

Ford could afford to be lighthearted as the Seawolves (6-19, 2-10 CAA) ended a three-game losing streak. Andre Snoddy finished with 27 points and 12 rebounds and Luster added 26 points.

“Snoddy was just elite. He was fantastic. Kind of willed us to the win,’’ said Ford, who added: “Hopefully we can start playing with some confidence.”

His counterpart, Speedy Claxton, was not in a good mood after Hofstra fell to 12-13, 4-8 with its third straight loss.

“Until we get some toughness, we’re not going to win another game. It is a serious, serious, serious lack of toughness in that locker room with these kids,” Claxton said during his 2-minute, 35-second postgame media availability. “ . . . I don’t know if they even care in that locker room.”

When did Claxton see a lack of toughness? “In practice, games, walkthroughs,’’ he said. “I just don’t know about these kids.”

He added: “We had a closed-door meeting with the team and then we gave them some time to talk amongst themselves. We kept talking about us. We got to stop the talk and just go out there and do it, but we didn’t get it done.”

Davis’ three-pointer from in front of Hofstra’s bench cut Stony Brook’s lead to 75-74 with 26 seconds left. Luster made two free throws with 11 seconds remaining to extend Stony Brook’s lead to 79-75 and then blocked Davis’ shot.

Davis scored 24 points, Jean Aranguren had 17 and Michael Graham added 13 points and 10 rebounds for Hofstra.

Despite the numbers, Claxton was underwhelmed.

“Why the hell would I be impressed?” he said. “What would I be impressed about?”

The Long Island rivals last met on March 11, 2024, in the CAA Tournament semifinals. The Seawolves won that encounter, 63-59, to reach the conference championship game for the first time in their two-year history as a CAA member school and ended the Pride’s season.

Three hundred and thirty-four days later, the first of two regular-season contests was a matchup between the conference’s 10th-place team (Hofstra) and its 13th-place squad (Stony Brook).

Which maybe should not have been completely unexpected, given that each team has eight players who were not on the 2023-24 editions.

“You look at Hofstra, you look at Stony Brook, it’s a lot of new names,” Ford said. “The teams that have had success have been together and played together.”

So until their next meeting, Stony Brook has Long Island bragging rights. “These guys, they work hard in practice,’’ Ford said. “They come in, they do extra stuff. They watch extra film. They’re hungry to get better and they feel like we’re playing way better now than we were in November.’’