Jan. 23, 2002

Stony Brook, N.Y. - Vermont (14-4, 7-1) at Stony Brook (3-15, 2-5) Game Notes

Media: WUSB 90.1 FM, internet at www.goseawolves.org

Game Backdrop:* Stony Brook plays host to America East leaders Vermont tonight.

* Starting guard Larry Jennings is out tonight. He experienced swelling in his left foot after the New Hampshire game, the same foot in which he broke a bone back in October. He will be reexamined this week.

* Vermont is coming off a loss against Hartford on Sunday which stopped its winning streak at 12.

Versus Vermont and the America East: Stony Brook is 0-1 versus the Catamounts and 3-9 against America East teams since 1998-99.

Macarchuk Versus Vermont: Macarchuk is 10-2 all-time versus Vermont.

Last Time Out: The Seawolves fell behind 21-6 early against New Hampshire on Friday night and were unable to recover as the Wildcats held off a Stony Brook rally to post a 75-68 win. Stony Brook got as close as 39-38 in the second half but was never able to take the lead. D.J. Munir led the way for the Seawolves, scoring a game-high 27 points. The difference in the game was the rebounding, SB was outboarded 45-29 in the game.

Seawolves In January: The Seawolves are 12-11, 2-4 this year, in January since moving to the Division I level.

About Vermont: The Catamounts feature the three-headed monster of Trevor Gaines, Taylor Coppenrath and T.J. Sorrentine. All three are in the top five in the league in scoring and Gaines leads the league in rebounding. In the last meeting, Gaines went over the 1,000-point mark for his career. Sorrentine, last year's America East Rookie of the Year and 2002 Preseason All-Conference selection, also is tops in the league in steals and assists. Coppenrath, a redshirt freshman, has been named AmericaEast Rookie of the Week on four occasions.

Brook Bits: Ken White, Stony Brook's head strength and conditioning coach, is a former basketball standout at Vermont. The '92 grad was a four-year performer who is the school's all-time leader in assists and games played. The Last Meeting Vermont struck often and early as the broke out to 21-2 advantage in the last matchup back on January 2. The Seawolves rallied to get within seven, but the Catamounts were just too strong as they rolled to a 91-60 victory. Trevor Gaines scored a game-high 27 points and was one of four Catamounts to reach double figures. JonPaul Kobryn had 18 for Stony Brook.

D.J. And T.J. - Old Friends: The starting point guards tonight - D.J. Munir and T.J. Sorrentine - have seen each other before. Both guards played summer ball together before attending prep school.

New Additions: Stony Brook welcomed three transfers to the roster this week in Cori Spencer, John Bucaro and Tyrone Stallings. Headlining the trio is 6-7, 230-pound forward Cori Spencer who spent the previous year-and-a-half at Fordham. The former Peekskill HS standout played for one season with current Los Angeles Clipper and former Duke Blue Devil Elton Brand at Peekskill. Following high school, he went on to play one season at Bridgton Academy in Maine with current Seawolf D.J. Munir. At Bridgton he averaged 16 points and 10 rebounds per game to earn first team All-New England Prep honors and was later named honorable mention All-America by Blue Ribbon and rated as one of the Top 125 recruits in the nation by Recruiting Beat. Bucaro, a 6-4, 190-pound shooting guard, was a three-time All-League selection for St. Anthony's High School on Long Island before heading to Holy Cross. He appeared in 10 games as a freshman with the Crusaders. Stallings also joins the Seawolves from Fordham. A 6-3, 190-pound point guard will add depth to Stony Brook's backcourt. All three players become eligible to compete for SB following the conclusion of the 2002 fall semester. Spencer and Bucaro will have two-and-a-half year of eligibility remaining while Stallings will have a year-and-a-half.

Young Guns: Stony Brook features a young team dominated by underclassmen. A look at the game starts this year broken down by class. Starts by class: Freshmen: 12 Sophomores: 59 Juniors: 13 Seniors: 6

Carrying The Load: The underclassmen make up the bulk of Stony Brook's offense. The top five scorers - four sophomores, one freshmen -- make up 79 percent of the team's scoring so far this season. D.J. Munir is accountable for 29 percent of that output.

Home Sweet Home: Stony Brook has won 14 of its last 16 home games. Two of those losses came this year. The last time SB lost two home games in a season was in the inaugural season of Division I.

Back-To-Back: Tonight marks Stony Brook's first back-to-back home games this season. With the loss on Friday, SB again failed to win back-to-back games -- its third opportunity of the year to do so. SB last won two games in row late last season.

The 600 Mark: D.J. Munir surpassed the 600-point plateau with his 27-point effort last Friday against New Hampshire. He is the first Seawolf to score 600 or more points in their first two seasons since Emeka Smith did it from 1989-91. Smith scored 1,190 points in his first two season.

Hey Mister D.J.: Munir continues to be Stony Brook's top gun on offense. Last week he averaged 25.5 points, five assists and five rebounds in two games. He has scored 20 points or more on six occasions and has one 30-point effort to his credit. He ranks among the top five in the America East in three offensive categories: free throw shooting (1st), scoring (4th) and assists (4th). Munir has hit five threes in his last two games.

More On D.J.: SB's sophomore point guard continues to impress with each and every outing. Through the first 46 games of his career, he has scored 612 points, an average of just over 13 points per game. At this pace, he would finish with over 1,450 career points which would place him sixth on the all-time scoring list. He is poised to become SB's first 1,000-point scorer since Larry Gibson finished with 1,002 points in 1998.

Bad On The Boards: Stony Brook's lack of rebounding came back to haunt them against UNH. The Wildcats outrebounded SB, 45-29, in Friday's win. The Seawolves rank last in the league in rebounding margin, being outrebounded by over seven boards per game.

Improving J.B.: J.B. Bennett is arguably SB's most improved player this year. Last season, Bennett averaged one points and 1.8 rebounds per game in just 142 minutes of action. He shot only 51.7 percent from the free throw line and has only seven blocks for the year. This season, Bennett is averaging 6.0 points and 5.7 rebounds per game in just over 24 minutes of action. He has connected on 73.5 percent of his free throws, third best on the team. He also ranks sixth in the league in blocked shots.

19 For His Nineteenth: How about this? JonPaul Kobryn celebrated his 19th birthday on Jan. 15 by scoring a career-high 19 points against the Bearcats, going 6-9 from the floor and hitting seven of 10 free throws. JPK has been on fire lately, scoring in double figures in three of his last five games. He has slowly emerged as SB's top field goal percentage guy, he now is shooting 52.4 percent from the field and entered the week third in the America East in that category.

From Three: Stony Brook has hit 13 three-pointers in its last two games, an average of 6.5 per game -- well over its average of 4.1 for the year.

Charity Cases: Stony Brook ranks second in the league in free throw shooting at a .715 clip while Vermont is number one at .758. The Catamounts rank 11th in the nation in that category.