Jalen Ray scored 22 points Saturday night and former Arkansas player Abayomi Iyiola produced a double-double to lead Hofstra to an 89-81 upset of the No. 24 Razorbacks in North Little Rock, Ark.
Iyiola added 18 points and 14 rebounds for the Pride (7-5), which nearly stunned Top 25 foes Houston and Maryland last month before dropping those games by a combined 10 points. They finished this one with balanced scoring and excellent rebounding.
Aaron Estrada stuffed the stat sheet with 22 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists for Hofstra and Darlinstone Dubar chipped in 11 points. The Pride won this one without leading scorer Zach Cooks (17.4 ppg), who sat out with a hip injury.
JD Notae scored 20 points for Arkansas (9-2) before fouling out in the final minute and Chris Lykes came off the bench to add 19. But the Razorbacks made just 44.6 percent of their field goal tries and lost the rebounding battle 40-33.
Arkansas pulled within 66-64 with 4:53 left when Davonte Davis capped a 14-2 run with a 3-point play. But Hofstra responded with eight straight points — all on layups — and then sealed the outcome with 10 straight foul shots in the last 70 seconds.
The top storyline before tipoff was how Arkansas would bounce back from its first loss, an 88-66 drilling to Oklahoma on Dec. 11 in Tulsa that saw coach Eric Musselman get ejected for arguing with official Gerry Pollard in the final four minutes.
Musselman pledged his team would improve their 3-point defense, which allowed the Sooners to make 13 of 22, against a foe that entered the game averaging nearly 11 3-pointers per game.
While Hofstra didn’t quite light it up from distance as it usually does, it controlled most of the game. It took the lead just before the midway point of the first half and never let it go. It stretched the margin to 10 late in the first half before settling for a 40-32 cushion at intermission on two foul shots by Jaquan Carlos with 43 seconds left.
–Field Level Media