March Madness: Hofstra falls to Alabama in first round of the NCAA Tournament
Hofstra's Preston Edmead battles for the ball against Alabama's Latrell Wrightsell Jr. during the first half in the first round of the 2026 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament on Friday in Tampa, Fla. Credit: Getty Images/Mike Carlson
TAMPA, Fla. — Hofstra waited 25 years to get back to the NCAA Tournament. It will continue to wait for its first ever win there.
The 13-seeded Pride fell to No. 4 Alabama, 90-70, in a first-round game at Benchmark International Arena on Friday afternoon. Deer Park’s Preston Edmead scored 24 and Cruz Davis added 14 as Hofstra fell to 24-11. German Plotnikov, a grad student in his final game for Hofstra, scored 12. Labaron Philon Jr. led Alabama with 29. The Crimson Tide (24-9) will face No. 5 Texas Tech in the second round on Sunday.
This was Hofstra’s fifth game in the Tournament as a Division I program. It had previously reached the brackets in 1976, 1977, 2000 and 2001. It also qualified for the Tournament in 2020 but that event was cancelled due to Covid.
Hofstra led by 10 midway through the first half after a three-pointer from Joshua Aaron Reaves capped a 16-2 run that made it 28-18. Alabama turned the momentum and took a 37-35 lead into halftime. Hofstra cut Alabama’s lead to 67-62 when Edmead hit a three-pointer and closed to 5 again when Cruz hit a layup that made it 71-66 with just under five minutes left, but it never got closer. Alabama closed out the game on a 19-4 run.
Hofstra came into the contest having won seven straight, including three at last week’s CAA Tournament.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
