Dec. 4, 2008

Lehigh Game Notes

Stony Brook, N.Y. - Stony Brook's men's basketball team will go for its third straight victory on Friday night, hosting the Lehigh Mountain Hawks at Pritchard Gymnasium. Game time is set for 7 p.m. Friday's contest will air locally on WUSB 90.1 FM and goseawolves.org with Mike Solano (play-by-play), Jeff Bernstein (color) and Curt Hylton (color) announcing. Fans can also follow Gametracker and live video streaming of the game at goseawolves.org.

The Seawolves come into Friday's game off a dominating 60-39 victory over New Jersey Tech on Tuesday night at the Fleischer Athletic Center. Freshman Bryan Dougher (Scotch Plains, N.J.) scored a season-best 24 points, including 18 in the first half. The Scotch Plains, N.J. native went 5-for-6 from the three-point line and knocked down seven of his nine free throw attempts. Junior Muhammad El-Amin (Lansing, Mich.) added 13 points for the Seawolves, who held the Highlanders to 30 percent (15-for-50) shooting from the field.

Dougher's 24 points against the Highlanders were the most by a Seawolves freshman since SBU joined Division I in the 1999-2000 season. The last time a freshman scored more came in 1997-98 when Josh Little tallied 26 points against Bridgeport. Dougher also knocked down five three-pointers against the Highlanders, the most by an SBU freshman since Bobby Santiago also knocked down five on December 2, 2002 against Rhode Island.

The Seawolves have continued to be one of the best defensive teams in the America East this season after finishing last year third in the conference in scoring defense. Through six games this season, Stony Brook is allowing a conference low 57.3 points per game. SBU allowed just 39 points against NJIT on Tuesday, the fewest points its allowed since giving up 39 in a victory over UMBC on Feb. 3, 2007. The last time the Seawolves allowed fewer than 39 points came on Feb. 3, 2001 when SBU defeated Maritime, 63-38.

A victory on Friday night against the Mountain Hawks would give the Seawolves their best start since the 2004-05 squad also started the season 4-3. It would also be Stony Brook's longest winning streak, three, since the 2002-03 Seawolves won six in a row.

The Mountain Hawks (5-2) come into Friday's game off a 77-64 loss to St. Joseph's on Tuesday night. The loss snapped a three-game winning streak for the Mountain Hawks who were picked second in the Patriot League preseason coaches poll. Marquis Hall averages a team-high 15.0 points per game for Lehigh which ranks second in the Patriot League in scoring offense (71.0 ppg) and field goal percentage (.433). Hall is also averaging 6.7 rebounds per game which ranks second in the league.