Hofstra Kent. keep up

Hofstra coach Joe Mihalich and his players couldn’t wait to step on the Barclays Center floor and face Kentucky, calling Sunday’s nationally televised matchup a “once in a lifetime opportunity.”

Well, once was probably enough.

Playing their first ranked opponent in three years, the Pride hung around with the sixthranked Wildcats for most of the first half, but ultimately couldn’t handle Kentucky’s overwhelming length and athleticism, losing, 96-73, in the second game of the Brooklyn Hoops Winter Festival.

Led by Deron Powers (18 points) and Rokas Gustys (13 points, eight rebounds), Hofstra (6-5) was strong on the boards and made John Calipari’s future pros look mortal early, trailing 36-33 with 3:20 left in the first half.

“They were not afraid of us at all,” Calipari said. “They were physical, they made shots. It was a three-point game and I’m thinking, ‘Why did I schedule this game? What was I thinking?’ ”

The Wildcats (9-1) then accelerated with ease, reeling off a 12-0 run to close the first half before adding a 14-3 run to start the second half. In about seven minutes, a one-possession game morphed into a deficit Kentucky would have had trouble closing.

“I said to Cal after the game, ‘I think you’re gonna win this whole thing,’ ” Mihalich said. “At the end of the year they might be cutting down the nets. … They’ve got so many answers, so many weapons.”

The Pride had a solid game plan, sagging into a zone defense to force Kentucky to shoot from outside, but didn’t have the weapons to keep pace for 40 minutes.

Hofstra was held to less than 34 percent shooting from the field and was outscored 48-28 in the paint, giving up 23 points off turnovers.

“We played 33 minutes of great basketball. Really, we can be proud of it,” Gustys said. “Seven minutes, we had a bad stretch, but I’m sure at the end of the season we’re gonna look at it and say, ‘Hey, it was good for us,’ and we learned from it.’”