STONY BROOK, N.Y. — The Stony Brook men's basketball team surged into the lead on Wednesday night behind a trio of three-pointers from
Makale Foreman in the game's opening minutes.
However, Hartford claimed a double-digit advantage heading into halftime and ultimately swept the season series from the Seawolves with a 65-54 victory at Island Federal Arena.
Stony Brook (18-11, 9-5 AE) remains in sole possession of second place in the conference standings, but its stranglehold on that position — and homecourt advantage for at least a pair of rounds of the America East playoffs — became more precarious with Wednesday's defeat.
Trailing by seven points, Hartford (16-14, 9-6) closed the first half on a 24-5 run to take a 38-26 lead into intermission.
Foreman had drained three treys in the opening 3:37 as the Seawolves owned an early 11-2 lead.
Unfortunately for the Seawolves, they missed their next 21 shots from behind the arc.
Foreman nonetheless now has 90 three-pointers, passing Bryan Dougher's 89 during the 2011-12 season for second in a single season in program history. Dougher's 95 treys in 2009-10 remain the program record — for now.
Foreman had been in a recent funk, shooting 10-for-46 (21.7 percent) from beyond the arc in his previous five games.
"Offensively we were a travesty, to be honest," coach
Geno Ford said. "They had 16 steals. That's really hard to overcome. Our defense was fine. ... We've got to be a lot better on offense. Some of them were good shots that we just aren't making right now. At other times we got it to the rim and weren't finishing in traffic, which has been an issue for us all year. But there are a lot of games left, so we just have to stick with it. It happens."
A pregame Senior Day ceremony honored graduating reserve
Quari Alleyne.
Leading scorer
Elijah Olaniyi remained sidelined for a fourth straight game with an ankle injury, but
Mouhamadou Gueye returned after departing Saturday's win against Maine during the second half with a leg injury. Ford pulled Gueye late as a precaution.
"We're confident we're going to get him back, but I don't know when that's going to be," Ford said about Olaniyi.
Stony Brook completes the regular season with road games at Albany (7-7) and UMBC (7-7), both of which are also competing for homecourt advantage in the conference tournament.
