In a tale of two halves, Hofstra men’s basketball trailed by as much as 18 points, closed the deficit to even the score and eventually lost, 82-74, to Northeastern in the Colonial Athletic Association men’s basketball championship on Tuesday night at North Charleston Coliseum.

The top-ranked Pride, who won a school-record 27 games this season, had its hopes of playing in the NCAA tournament come crashing down with the loss. It would have been the Pride’s first trip to the tournament since 2001.

“You only get so many chances in life to do something like this,” said Hofstra coach Joe Mihalich. “We had a chance and came up short.”

Star Hofstra guard and Queens native Justin Wright-Foreman led all scorers with 29 points. Wright-Foreman also broke the single-season CAA and Hofstra scoring records in the loss. He now has 919 points, which passes NBA and Navy legend David Robinson’s mark of 903 from the 1986-87 season. Hofstra’s Richie Laurel scored 908 points in 1976-77.

Hofstra has already earned a berth to the National Invitational Tournament by winning the regular season CAA championship and will find out Sunday night if they’ll host a first round game in Hempstead.