The Iona Gaels and the Hofstra Pride meet in college basketball action from the Mack Sports Complex on Friday night.
The Iona Gaels will try to build on their 78-50 beatdown win over Penn to start the year. Daniss Jenkins led the Gaels with 19 points on 8 of 16 shooting with 6 rebounds and a team-high 5 assists while Quinn Slazinski had 16 points with 3 threes and 5 rebounds. Nelly Junior Joseph added 13 points along with 10 rebounds for the double-double while Berrick JeanLouis added 12 points with a pair of threes to round out the group of double-digit scorers for Iona in the winning effort.
The Hofstra Pride will be out to build on their 83-77 win over Princeton last time out. Aaron Estrada led the Pride with 27 points on 12 of 19 shooting with a team-high 5 assists while Amari Marshall added 15 points on 6 of 11 shooting and Darlinstone Dubar had 11 points with a team-high 12 rebounds for the double-double to round out the group of double-digit scorers for Hofstra in the victory.
Iona is 0-4 ATS in their last 4 Friday games and 2-6 ATS in their last 8 games following an ATS win while the under is 8-3 in their last 11 games overall. Hofstra is 0-9 ATS in their last 9 home games and 1-5 ATS in their last 6 games overall while the over is 4-0 in their last 4 games overall.
I get the case to be made for both sides in this game, but I’m leaning towards Hofstra here. The Gaels will be fine once we hit conference play, but with this being the second game, I just like the makeup of Hofstra’s roster better than I do Iona’s The Gaels may have the best player on the floor in Nelly Junior Joseph, but I just think the Pride are the better unit and as such, I’ll back the Pride with the free bucket at home here.