WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J. – The Stony Brook men's basketball team (6-9, 2-0 CAA) used a late push to blow past the Monmouth Hawks (1-14, 0-2 CAA), 67-56, on Thursday night at OceanFirst Bank Center.
With about 9:30 minutes remaining, and the score tied at 46-46, junior guard
Tanahj Pettway stole the ball from Monmouth and found senior guard
Tyler Stephenson-Moore in transition. Stephenson-Moore decimated the rim, with a two-handed slam dunk to give the Seawolves the lead and they never looked back.
From that moment, the Seawolves outscored Monmouth 21-10 to close out the game with their second-straight win and to move to 2-0 in conference play.
On the ensuing offensive possession, graduate forward
Frankie Policelli scored from inside the paint to extend the Stony Brook lead to 53-48. The next points were scored by Monmouth's Klemen Vuga and then Pettway responded with a layup to make it 55-50.
On the next possession, Policelli nailed a two-point jumper to extend Stony Brook's lead to seven. The New Hartford, New York, native led the team with 17 points (6-of-16 from the field) in the game.
On the other end, Monmouth's Jakari Spence drove into the paint, looking to stop Stony Brook's run, but junior forward
Kenan Sarvan stood in his way. Sarvan reached the peak of his jump and swatted away Spence's shot.
With 2:38 left, and already on a 6-0 run, Sarvan delivered the dagger. On a pick-and-pop play, Pettway passed the ball off to Sarvan, who drained a long three pointer and gave Stony Brook a 62-50 lead.
Despite being up by double figures, the Seawolves did not let up. Policelli stepped out beyond the three-point arc and hit one of his three three pointers of the night, which put Stony Brook up 65-52.
Backed by a strong first half and a late game surge, the Seawolves knocked off the Monmouth Hawks, in their second all-time meeting.
STATS AND NOTES
- Stony Brook had three scorers reach double figures. Policelli scored 17 points, Stephenson-Moore scored 15 points, and sophomore guard Kaine Roberts scored a career-high 15 points.
- Roberts scored 14 of his 15 points on the night in the first half. He finished the night perfect from the floor, shooting 4-of-4 overall and 3-of-3 from three-point range. He went 4-of-6 from the free-throw line and hauled in two rebounds in 26 minutes of action.
- Stephenson-Moore played all 40 minutes for the fourth-straight game and the sixth time this season.
- Stephenson-Moore and Sarvan tied for the team lead with eight rebounds. Sarvan's eight rebounds tied his season-high of eight, which he had against St. Joseph's L.I.
- Freshman forward Leon Nahar made his Stony Brook debut, playing in three minutes. He pulled down two rebounds, the first of his career.
- The Seawolves shot 40 percent from the field (23-of-57) and 30 percent from three-point range (10-of-33). It was Stony Brook's fifth time this season making 10 or more three pointers in a game and the first time since December 9 at Bryant.
- Stony Brook made 11 of its 14 free-throw attempts.
- The Seawolves outrebounded Monmouth, 42-37
QUOTES FROM THE SEAWOLVES
"Really good road win for us. Kaine sparked us in the first half and after the game got tight in the middle of the second half we made several key plays on both ends. We will need to be ready for an excellent Towson team who are the defending champs in the conference and have all five starters back. We will need the crowd who have been awesome all season to give us a lift Saturday night," said head coach
Geno Ford.
NEXT UP
Stony Brook will return home to face the Towson Tigers on Saturday, Jan. 7. Tip-off is set for 6:31 p.m. and the game will be broadcast live on SNY and FloHoops. It will be Stony Brook's second game all-time against Towson.
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