His team was more than ready to get Hofstra’s biggest win in years.
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Hofstra didn’t shoot the ball particularly well as a team, but Brian Bernardi caught fire from deep early and finished with a team-high 24 points on 6-for-8 shooting on 3-pointers. Florida State didn’t have any answers, missing all 10 of its 3-point attempts in the first half and shooting just 39.7 percent from the field for the game.
Juan’ya Green added 17 points, Denton Koon had 15 and Ameen Tanksley 14 for the Pride (3-0). Against DePaul he scored nine first half points to boost Florida State to a 43-26 halftime lead on its way to as much as a 24-point second half lead.
For Hofstra, this is a great win against a probable tournament team and it’s the second win for the Colonial Athletic Association against an ACC opponent (William & Mary knocked off NC State last Friday).
Mindaugas Kacinas led the Gamecocks in scoring with 18 points, while Laimonas Chatkevicius and Michael Carrera added 17 points each.
DePaul head coach Dave Leitao is 1-5 all-time against Florida State, though. “We had good looks at the basket, maybe better shots than what we had been making in our first couple of games”.
Florida State (3-1) scored on 10 consecutive possessions during that flurry, when a 16-15 lead turned into a 37-18 margin.
“Our guys, they want this kind of a challenge”, Mihalich said. Both teams had four players in double figures.Hofstra’s 2-3 zone defense kept Florida State from breaking out in transition but the Seminoles eventually found their perimeter shots.
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The Blue Demons play Norfolk State on Monday afternoon in the seventh-place game at 2:30 p.m. AT/12:30 p.m. CT. It will be the first meeting between the two programs.
