Hofstra80

Boston U.62

NEWARK, Del. — Speedy Claxton gets to wear his brand-new black adidas again today because his Hofstra teammates filled his old shoes yesterday.

Poor 7-22 Boston University hounded Claxton and dared the other Flying Dutchmen to beat them. And the other Flying Dutchmen did just that, 80-62, yesterday in the American East Tournament.

Hofstra, the tournament’s top seed, is now two victories from its first NCAA berth since 1977. The Dutchmen try to get the first of them against the Vermont-Drexel winner in today’s semifinals.

If Hofstra (22-6) survives and advances, it gets to play for the tournament championship Saturday on its campus, where it has won 25 consecutive games.

But if they don’t play better than they did yesterday, they will be Crying Dutchmen.

There was a chill in the air inside the Bob Carpenter Center, and too many empty seats for the noon America East quarterfinal game against a game but eighth-seeded sparring partner, and all that conspired against Hofstra, and so did a week layoff that left the Dutchmen sloppy and yearning for bigger fish to fry in bigger, warmer NCAA seas.

“When the games are big they play, but they struggle sometimes when for some reason they’re not motivated by the other team,” coach Jay Wright said. “Now, I don’t think we gotta worry about that. It’s do-or-die.”

A dream six years in the making since Wright arrived to turn the program around is on the line. “I think it’s good we got through the first one, and I think we did some things that will help us play better [today],” Wright said.

Wright was smiling as he leaned against a wall in the locker room and held the crust from a slice of pizza in his hand because Speedy, watched closely by a slew of NBA scouts at courtside, barely broke in his sneakers.

“We didn’t have to expend a lot of energy with Speedy tonight,” Wright said.

And there was additional good news because junior forward Norman Richardson broke out of a mini-slump with 21 points on 7-of-12 shooting.

“I think that’s big for us to get him going today,” Wright said.

Added Richardson: “Anytime you’re in a slump, you want to shoot your way out of it,” Richardson said. “I think I did that today.”

Wright was not especially alarmed when Richardson threw an early pass into the B.U. band. “I think early in the game, their having played [Friday] night was an advantage for them,” Wright said. “But then as the game wore on, their playing last night was a disadvantage. They got a little tired, and we were kinda fresh.”

Claxton and Richardson combined for 24 of Hofstra’s first 31 points, but the dogged Terriers kept nipping at the Hofstra star’s heels with a triangle-and-one. A trey by Mike Costello cut the Hofstra lead to 33-26 and this is when freshman Rick Apodaca and junior Jason Hernandez came to the rescue. Hernandez, who had missed five of his first six treys, hit one from the left wing with 1:22 left in the half, and Apodaca (14 points) was fouled twice attempting trifectas and sank all six free throws over the final 49 seconds of the half to propel Hofstra to a 42-29 lead. “We take free throws very seriously in practice,” Apodaca said.

Hernandez opened the second half with a triple from downtown Hempstead and then another from the right wing with 16:37 left to make it 48-34, and B.U. couldn’t get closer than 11 the rest of the way. Hernandez made five of nine treys for 15 points. “I was getting the good shots early but just wasn’t getting my legs under the shot,” Hernandez said. “I was getting some real good looks towards the second half and was able to knock them down.”

Claxton, a 23.2 ppg scorer, didn’t score in the second half until draining a trey with 1:53 left and finished with 14 points, six assists and two turnovers. He took only three shots in the second half.

“I didn’t really even look to score,” Claxton said. “I was really looking to get my teammates shots because they were playing the triangle- and-two on us, so it was hard to get a clean look, and you can’t really drive against it. I don’t really think that a triangle-and-two is a good thing to play against us. The other guys could score, it’s just that the offemse is set up for me to score. Double- and triple-teams, they’re gonna score all night.”