Hempstead, NY - For the sixth time in their nine seasons in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA), the Hofstra Women's Basketball team will face William & Mary in the CAA Tournament as the Pride takes on the Tribe on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. in the opening round of the CAA Championship.
Hofstra and William & Mary also met in the opening round last season with the #10 seeded Tribe rallying late for a 63-62 victory over #7 Hofstra.
The winner of Thursday's game will face Virginia Commonwealth at 7:30 p.m. on Friday in the quarterfinals.
Hofstra (18-12, 11-7 CAA) enters the CAA Championship riding a bit of a hot streak as the Pride closed the regular season having won four of its last five and seven of its last nine games.
The two teams split this season's meeting with each winning on their respective home courts. William & Mary defeated Hofstra, 55-48, back on January 3 before Hofstra returned the favor on January 21 with a 68-51 defeat of the Tribe. Freshman forward Shante Evans excelled against William & Mary as she averaged 15.5 points and 16 rebounds in the two games. In Hofstra's victory she had 18 points, on 9-12 shooting, and also added 18 rebounds. The 18 rebounds are tied for Evans' career-high and are the sixth-highest single game total in program history.
Hofstra heads into the conference tournament being led by Evans, who averages team-bests of 13.7 points and 9.2 rebounds per game. Evans has 13 double-doubles this year and her per game rebounding average and her double-double total ranks first in the CAA.
Three other players average at least nine points per game for the Pride as sophomore guard Nicole Capurso is second with 9.7 points, senior guard Sam Brigham is third with 9.3 points and senior center Jess Fuller finishes the group with an average of 9.0 points per outing. Fuller also is second on the team with 5.5 rebounds per game and is first on the Pride and first in the CAA with 3.1 blocks per game (93 total).
William & Mary, which closed the regular season with a 71-65 victory over Drexel, is 12-17 overall and finished with a 5-13 CAA mark. Taysha Pye leads the Tribe with 16.6 points per game, while Tiffany Benson contributes 8.4 points and a team-high 8.0 rebounds per outing.
