STONY BROOK, N.Y. — The holiday break did nothing to disrupt redshirt junior Makale Foreman's sizzling shooting.

Foreman drained a trio of three-pointers in a 58-second span midway through the first half to ignite the Stony Brook men's basketball team in an eventual 81-65 victory against Norfolk State on Sunday at Island Federal Arena.

The Seawolves completed their challenging nonconference schedule with a 9-6 record, capped by consecutive victories against American and Norfolk State during which Foreman featured prominently.

Playing their first home game in 22 days, the Seawolves shot only 4-for-12 from the field and committed eight turnovers in the opening 11 minutes against Norfolk State.

Foreman's three-pointer with 8:53 remaining in the first half then opened a 16-11 lead. And after a three-point play from swingman Kashaun Hicks at the other end pulled the Spartans back within two points, Foreman answered with consecutive NBA-depth treys. That launched what became a 21-3 run to close the half as Stony Brook took a 37-17 advantage into intermission.

A stifling defense during that late-first-half stretch held Norfolk State (4-11) without a field goal for one second shy of seven full minutes.

Foreman tallied 15 points on 5-for-7 shooting from behind the arc in the first half.

He had contributed 18 points in the second half on 4-for-6 shooting from three-point range against American. The Seawolves overcame a 14-point second-half deficit that day in a 77-74 victory in D.C.

"Makale has really sparked us with his shooting," coach Geno Ford said. "He's an elite shooter, who can get his own [shot], and he can shoot it deep. He's got kind of Steph Curry range, where he's able to shoot it a couple of steps behind the arc. When he gets a hot hand, he can rattle off three or four in a row, as we've seen many times. Today in the first half he was the reason we got the separation."

Said Foreman: "I just give credit to my teammates. They were able to find me in transition and I was able to get the open shot."

The Seawolves, who led wire to wire, had opened as much as a 24-point lead in the second half. Norfolk State chiseled its deficit to as few as a dozen points late.

Elijah Olaniyi finished with a team-high 20 points, followed by Andrew Garcia with 18 and Foreman with 16.

Stony Brook opens America East play at Maine next Sunday.

"I think we're in a good spot," Garcia said. "I think everybody is playing together and everybody is comfortable with each other."

Said Ford: "We feel good about where we're at. There's two ways you can schedule nonconference. You can play some easier games and pad your record. Or you have the opportunity to go out and challenge yourself, which I think we've really done. We've played a lot of good teams — teams that are going to be in the postseason. Hopefully it's going to pay off for us. We're not going to find out until March, because that's the reality of our business. But I feel good right now that we haven't had easy games."