Note: The other two A-10 teams were eliminated earlier. Akron beat Temple, 80-73, also in overtime, on Tuesday, March 14th at the Liacouras Center in an opening round contest. Charlotte topped Georgia Southern, 77-61, the same evening for a match at the sub-bracket's number one team, Cincinnati. The Bearcats won by six, 86-80, on St. Patrick's Day, Fri. March 17th.
Saint Joseph's led for the first eight minutes of the first half before Loren Stokes's three-pointer put the Pride on top, 10-8, with 11:25 left in the period. Hofstra, of the Colonial Athletic Association, maintained the lead through the break, extending the margin to as many as eight points, before taking a 37-32 edge at the half.
The Hawks fought back and got to within one, 46-45, on Abdulai Jalloh's trey seven minutes into the second half. A Stokes' jumper returned the visitor's edge to 50-45. SJU took the lead, 52-50, on a 7-0 run with 9:22 to play.
An Aurimas Kieza jump shot a couple minutes later gave the Pride a 53-52 edge. Stokes's layup got the advantage to 60-55 before Pat Calathes scored the next seven points twice to tie the game, 62-62. Stokes answered again, this time with a three-pointer for a 65-62 lead with just over four minutes left in regulation.
Hofstra's 67-64 lead was erased in the final five seconds when Jalloh was fouled behind the arc by Kieza. The 84 percent free-throw shooter hit three straight from the charity stripe to force an extra five minutes of competition.
Kieza started OT with a jump shot followed by an Antoine Agudio trey that put Hofstra up 72-67 with just over four minutes to go.
St. Joe's regained the lead, 75-72 via Rob Ferguson's layup and Calathes's tip-in of Jalloh's missed layup with 76 seconds left - a fitting point for this City of Brotherly Love team. Unfortuanetly, that issue was transitory.
Two Pride baskets and an Agudio free throw gave the visitors a 77-75 lead. Agudio's second attempt from the line was rebounded by Calathes with 8.8 seconds left. But this time Jalloh couldn't perform the last second miracle.
Calathes added 17 for the Hawks while senior Chet Stachitas scored 14 points.
Agudio's 24 points and Stokes's 22 led Hofstra (26-6) --Agudio went over 1,000 career points in the game (1,005 in his two seasons). Kieza added 17. Adrian Uter and Carlos Rivera had game-bests of nine rebounds and six assists, respectively.
Hofstra hadn't won a Division I postseason game prior to this season.
The Pride's first win was over the Big 12's Nebraska, 73-62, on Thursday, March 16, 2006.
Saint Joseph's, which completed the season winning 8-of-11, ends 2005-06 with a 19-14 record.
The Hempstead, N.Y. team has won 14 of their last 16 games, losing only to CAA Champion UNC-Wilmington, which received the league's automatic bid to the NCAA. The Seahawks suffered an 88-85 overtime loss to the A-10's George Washington in the NCAA first round of play.
Hofstra (26-6) will host Old Dominion in the NIT quarterfinals, the last round on college courts, on Wednesday, March 22 at Hofstra Arena at 7:00 p.m. The semis and finals move to NYC's Madison Square Garden.
This will be the two CAA teams's third matchup of the year; Hofstra won the earlier games, 76-68 and 65-63. The Monarchs advanced via tonight's 70-66 win over Manhattan in Norfolk, Va.
The win is another peg for the so-called mid-major ladder to equivalency. Hofstra topped a Big 12 team and an Atlantic 10 program to reach the NIT's round of eight.
George Mason, which had lost both of its regular season games to the Pride, is an unusual second CAA team in the NCAA's. The Patriots topped power conference teams (Big 10 Michigan State and ACC UNC) last week to advance to the "Sweet 16" as did two of four Missouri Valley Conference programs (Bradley and Wichita State). The Atlantic Coast Conference also had four teams in the NCAA and also has two in third round, Duke and Boston College - the latter an ex-Big East team competing in the ACC for the first time this year.
With six of the NIT's final eight and the NCAA "Sweet 16" determined, here are the conference totals:
Conf. NCAA NIT Tot. (poss)
ACC 2 1 3 4
Big East 4 1 5 6
Big Ten 1 1 2
Big 12 1 1
CAA 1 2 3
C-USA 1 1
MVC 2 1 3
Pac-10 2 2
SEC 2 2 3
WCC 1 1
NIT Games Tuesday
Minnesota (Big Ten) at Cincinnati (Big East)
South Carolina (SEC) at Florida State (ACC)