Fairfield, CT – Freshman Eli Pemberton had 23 points and senior Brian Bernardi added 22 points for Hofstra, but a late Sacred Heart run was ultimately the difference as the Pioneers defeated the Pride, 90-86, at the Pitt Center on Tuesday evening.

The loss evens the Pride's record at 1-1 this season, while Sacred Heart improved to 1-1 with the victory.

An entertaining first half saw the two teams combine for 84 points as the Pride took a 43-41 lead into the break as Pemberton torched Sacred Heart for 18 first half points, including four three-pointers.

Sacred Heart took an earl 4-2 advantage before Hofstra scored nine straight points to open up an 11-4 lead with 14:48 left in the opening stanza. The Pioneers would turn that deficit into a nine-point lead as they used an extended 27-11 run to lead 31-22 with 7:22 to play.

Down by nine with under four minutes left before intermission, Hofstra gradually chipped away at the SHU lead and five straight points from Bernardi gave the Pride a 40-39 lead with 56 ticks left. A three-pointer from Pemberton with four seconds left culminated his scintillating first half and pushed the lead to two for Hofstra.

The game was knotted at 51 in the second half before a Pemberton jumper started a 11-2 run that concluded with a three-pointer with 12:13 left in regulation that made in 62-53 in favor of the Pride.

Trailing by nine, SHU put together a 12-2 run that put the Pioneers back in front at 65-64 with just over nine minutes left. It marked Sacred Heart's first lead of the second stanza.

The lead stretched to three before a three-pointer from junior Ty Greer evened the ledger at 67 with 8:32 left.

Greer's basket would prove to be an important one as it ignited a 13-2 to make it a 77-69 Hofstra leads with 6:14 remaining following a three-pointer from sophomore Desure Buie.

Sacred Heart chipped away at the Pride lead and a three-pointer from Sean Hoehn with 1:15 to play in regulation made it 85-81.

The rally would continue for the home squad they added to their run and Hoehn would star down the stretch with a personal 10-0 run to make it 88-85 in favor of Sacred Heart with five seconds left. It total it was a 16-3 run over the final 4:05 that pushed the outcome in favor of the Pioneers.

Greer added 12 points and five rebounds for Hofstra, while junior Rokas Gustys notched a game-high 13 rebounds to go along with his nine points.

Quincey McKnight led SHU with 28 points, while Joseph Lopez had 14 points and seven rebounds.

Hofstra returns to action on Friday when it travels to Manhattan for a 7 p.m. contest.

NOTES
- Hofstra is now 5-3 all-time against Sacred Heart. The Pride won last season's meeting in Hempstead by the score of 80-73.
- Pemberton has now scored at least 20 points in each of the first two games of his career at Hofstra after tallying 20 against Coppin State.
- Gustys had 36 rebounds through two games this season.