Feb. 6, 2008

Box Score

Baltimore, Md. - Ray Barbosa scored a game-high 25 points to lead the Maryland-Baltimore County Retrievers to a hard-fought 75-63 victory over the Stony Brook University men's basketball team on Wednesday night at the RAC Arena. Stony Brook falls to 4-18 and 1-9 with the loss while the first-place Retrievers improve to 16-7 and 8-2.

"I'm really proud of our team tonight, we had great effort and really battled them all the day," Stony Brook head coach Steve Pikiell said. "We just needed to make a few more stops down the stretch."

Senior Emanuel Neto (Luando, Angola) tallied team highs of 14 points and eight rebounds for the Seawolves who shot 46.4 percent from the field. Barbosa knocked down seven of the Retrievers nine three-pointers to earn America East Player of the game honors.

The Retrievers jumped out to an early 6-0 lead behind two threes from Barbosa, holding the Seawolves without a basket for nearly four minutes to open the game. Junior Michael Tyree (Somerset, N.J.) finally broke the drought with a three and a jumper from junior Nick Carter (Huntington Station, N.Y.) pulled SBU within 6-5.

UMBC, playing without leading scorer Brian Hodges, pushed its lead to 12-7 minutes later but a long three from Carter drew the Seawolves within two. With the score 14-10 the Seawolves finally pushed it into high gear, scoring six straight points, with the last two coming after a steal from freshman Chris Martin (Springfield Gardens, N.Y.) that gave SBU a 16-14 lead and force a UMBC timeout.

The Retrievers answered the Seawolves with a 10-3 run of their own, highlighted by two more three pointers from Barbosa to take a 24-19 advantage. SBU would not go away though as senior Mitchell Beauford (Queens, N.Y.) hit a tough runner in the lane followed by a jump hook from Neto to bring Stony Brook within one with just over four minutes to go.

The teams then traded hoops before a basket from Justin Fry with just over a minute remaining gave the Retrievers a 28-25 lead that they carried into the half. Martin scored six first half points to lead the Seawolves who shot 42.3 percent from the field and turned it over just five times. Barbosa tallied a game-high 12 for the UMBC who shot 37.9 percent in the opening stanza.

The Seawolves came out of the break hot, getting hoops from Neto and Lucas and a three from Tyree. But Barbosa stayed just as hot for UMBC, scoring seven points in the opening three minutes to keep the Retrievers up four heading into the first media timeout. A Cavell Johnson jumper with 12:04 left gave UMBC its largest advantage of the game at 44-37 and another Barbosa three a few possessions later gave the Retrievers a 10 point lead with 11:24 remaining.

But Neto kept the Seawolves in the game, scoring on three straight possessions to pull SBU within 49-43 before a Tyree steal and lay-in seconds later cut the Stony Brook deficit to four and forced a UMBC timeout with 8:48 to go. Barbosa once again had an answer, hitting a three from the corner on the ensuing possession out of the timeout and the Seawolves would get no closer than seven the rest of the way as Proctor gave the Retrievers their largest lead of the game at 61-47 with just over four minutes remaining.

Stony Brook returns to action on Saturday, taking on Boston University at 1 p.m.