TAMPA, Fla. — Hofstra waited 25 years for this, and man, did it show. 

The Pride was too proud to let go. Hofstra didn’t want to leave the NCAA Tournament stage it’s been craving for a quarter of a century. 

But in the end, Alabama’s length, strength, speed and athleticism caught up to Hofstra’s heart. 

In the end, the final was Tide 90, Pride 70 in Friday’s NCAA Tournament first round at Benchmark International Arena. 

The bloated final score wasn’t indicative of the hard out Speedy Claxton’s No. 13 seed Hofstra proved to be for No. 4 Alabama, the SEC power with one of the best players in the country in star guard Labaron Philon Jr. 

Alabama (24-11), which plays Texas Tech in the second round Sunday, was clinging to a five-point lead with six minutes to play. 

“Hofstra is a team that’s been on a big winning streak,’’ Alabama coach Nate Oats said. “They came in expecting to win, and you could tell that.’’ 

The game simply got away from Hofstra (24-9) in the closing minutes after the Pride failed to make a series of defensive stops to keep it close. 

“We made history,’’ Claxton said. “We wanted to go further. But at the end of the day, we still did special things here.’’ 

His players, who’d built a 28-18 lead in the first half, had Alabama reeling and could taste an upset as 12 ½-point underdogs. 

“We know what we did was special,’’ said Preston Edmead, Hofstra freshman guard from Deer Park. “We made history. I never wanted this season to end, because it was so special.’’ 

Edmead led Hofstra with 24 points on take-charge 9-for-25 shooting. His backcourt mate, Cruz Davis, the team’s leading scorer all season, was held below his 20-point average with 14 on 6-for-17 shooting. 

Cruz’s counterpart, Philon, whom Hofstra contained for the better part of the first half (eight points), eventually became too much to handle. He finished with a game-high 29 points and seemingly dropped a 3-pointer on Hofstra whenever the Tide was in need. 

“Labaron told me he wasn’t going home,’’ Oats said. 

Alabama’s 6-foot-11 big man Aiden Sherrell scored 15 points and had 15 rebounds. Taylor Bol Bowen scored 15 off the bench for the Tide. 

As much as Philon’s 21-point second half hurt, Alabama bettered Hofstra on the boards, which was Claxton’s No. 1 concern entering the game given the Tide’s decided height advantage. 

Alabama had 46 rebounds to Hofstra’s 34, but it was the Tide’s 17 offensive boards that hurt most. Claxton was determined to limit Alabama possessions, and those offensive rebounds sabotaged that plan. 

“Tough to win a game when you give up 17 offensive rebounds,’’ Claxton said. “For a team like us, in a tournament like this, we pretty much almost have to play perfect basketball. And today, we didn’t do that.’’ 

If Hofstra didn’t have Alabama’s attention early, the 28-18 lead it built at the 9:15 mark in the first half did. 

A 3-pointer from Hamden, Connecticut’s Joshua Aaron Reaves gave Hofstra the 28-18 lead. At that point, the Pride was on a 13-2 run, and it was 26-10 since it trailed 8-2. 

Alabama would settle down and climb back into it, beginning with a 3-pointer from Latrell Wrightsell Jr. (11 points) to make it 28-21 with 8:04 remaining. The Tide regained the lead, 33-32, on a Sherrell basket with 1:56 remaining before the intermission. Sherrell hurt Hofstra in the first half, leading all scorers with 12 points. 

“It’s win or go home, so we had to come up with a different urgency,’’ Sherrell said. 

Alabama scored the last two baskets before the half to take a 37-35 lead into the locker room. Then the Tide began the second half on a 7-0 run and eventually built its biggest leads at 56-43 and 59-46 before Hofstra chiseled its way back into the game. 

An Edmead 3-pointer cut it to 62-55 with 9:32 remaining and seemed to spark the Pride. Another trey from Edmead cut it to 67-62 with 7:10 remaining. A slam dunk by Victory Onueto made it 69-64 with 5:57 left. 

But Philon kept answering with dagger 3-pointers. 

“We got it down to five a couple times and then they hit a big shot,’’ Claxton said. “I truly believe if we would have got the stop, got the rebound and maybe got a score, it would have changed things. I wish we could have seen that.’’ 

So do all of Long Island and those beyond who are fans of the Pride. 

“We’ve got to embrace the moment,’’ said Hofstra fourth-year senior German Plotnikov, who scored 12 points. “It’s hard to get here. Not a lot of kids in college basketball get to do what we did.’’ 

It was, indeed, quite a ride. One that took 25 years.