STONY BROOK, N.Y. — The Stony Brook men's basketball team looked like the bounces were headed its way when a three-pointer from Mouhamadou Gueye bounced up and then through the cylinder in the waning minutes to open a six-point lead.

However, Hartford rallied for a 59-57 victory over the Seawolves on Saturday at Island Federal Arena.

Hartford's Austin Williams produced an offensive rebound and layup with 15 seconds remaining to break the 57-all tie. Jaden Sayles then missed a pair of free throws with 2.3 seconds to go — the latter intentionally to try to get Stony Brook a rebound. But Hartford got that bounce and the buzzer sounded soon thereafter. 

"It's not an effort issue," Stony Brook coach Geno Ford said. "We had 22 offensive rebounds. You can't get 22 offensive rebounds and not be playing at maximum effort. So I have no issue with our effort.

"We have a lot of issues with just being sloppy with the ball, lack of attention to detail with some scouting report stuff, which is frustrating. And then our shooting has been anemic since we've come back [from the COVID pause]. We've had five straight games we can't make a shot — whether that be a three or a free throw. So we've got to keep grinding."

Hartford also had won all three meetings from the Seawolves last season, including ousting Stony Brook from the America East tournament in the semifinals, shortly before the event was canceled due to COVID-19. Stony Brook had won 13 of the previous 14 meetings heading into 2019-20.

Both staffs wore sneakers as part of the Coaches vs. Cancer Week. The event was particularly meaningful to Ford, who lost his father Gene to the disease in June 2019.

Earlier on Saturday, Omar Habwe's three-pointer with 8:05 remaining pulled the Seawolves even at 47.

The teams then went scoreless for nearly four minutes before Tykei Greene and Gueye produced consecutive three-pointers to open a six-point advantage.

Gueye's trey from the top of the arc bounced up before heading through the cylinder to produce a 53-47 advantage.

However, Hartford ultimately caught Stony Brook (7-8, 5-4 AE)  on a three-pointer from Hunter Marks with 1:31 left that evened the score at 55. The Hawks went only 3-for-26 from three-point range for the game.

"We were defending them at an elite level and they were defending us at an elite level," Hartford coach John Gallagher said.

Greene had a double-double (15 pounds, 10 rebounds) and Gueye had 14 rebounds in the defeat.

The teams meet again on Sunday at 2 p.m. at Island Federal Arena.