It glared at him with an undesirable, if not unexpected, result.

“It hurts, definitely,’’ said Janning after the Huskies dropped a game behind first-place Old Dominion. “Not necessarily [missing] the shot, but just looking up at the score and not coming away with the win my last game here.

“But it’s like Coach said, it’s just another basketball game and we got plenty more to play this year and that’s what we need to focus on.’’

No longer in control of their own destiny, the Huskies (18-11, 13-4) will need to win their regular-season finale Saturday afternoon at George Mason to have any chance of earning the top seed for next weekend’s CAA tournament in Richmond, Va. But, even then, NU will need help from Virginia Commonwealth in its finale at Old Dominion.

Still, it was clear last night that the Huskies could not afford any more end-of-season pratfalls. Last season NU flirted with first place, then went into a February swoon (losing five of eight games), before backing its way to the third seed and getting bounced in its first game against lowly Towson.

“I’m quite certain that we’re going to go down and compete on Saturday,’’ said coach Bill Coen, whose team got a combined 25 points and 10 rebounds from senior center Nkem Ojougboh (15 points, 7 rebounds) and Manny Adako (10). Janning (12 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists) and Chaisson Allen (11 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists) combined to go 0 for 7 from the 3-point arc.

Coming on the heels of last Saturday’s 70-67 BracketBusters loss to Louisiana Tech, the setback spoiled the festivities for Janning, Ojougboh, Adako, Baptiste Bataille and Brian McDonald, a walk-on from Southbury, Conn., who made the first start of his career when Coen gave his departing senior quintet the starting nod in last night’s home finale before a crowd of 1,954.

The Huskies got some big contributions from its senior starters en route to a 37-35 halftime lead.

Ojougboh led the way with 10 points and five rebounds in the first half while Bataille and Adako chipped in 8 points apiece.

But, in the second half, Charles Jenkins (20 points, 15 in the second half) sparked a 9-point run that Chaz Williams (12 points) capped with a back-breaking trey to give Hofstra a 50-45 lead wih 12:26 to go. Jenkins expanded it to 56-49 with another trey. After Allen converted a 3-point play, Cornelius Vines answered with a trifecta to put the Pride up, 61-55. Allen tied it, 61-61, with a foul-inducing drive with 3:14 left, but missed the foul shot. It was all Hofstra from there, the Pride outscoring NU, 12-1, in the final 2:58.

“Though we didn’t get the win tonight I’m extremely proud of this group of seniors,’’ Coen said. “They’ve accomplished so much in their career and, hopefully, there’s more to come for them, because if there was ever a group of guys who deserved it, it would be this group of guys.’’

Michael Vega can be reached at vega@globe.com.