STONY BROOK, N.Y. — Stony Brook men's basketball dropped its non-conference finale to UAlbany, 77-70, on Sunday afternoon at the Broadview Center. The Seawolves battled back from a 19-point, second-half deficit but could not overcome the Great Danes down the stretch.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- UAlbany jumped out to early leads of 8-0 and 13-2, forcing Stony Brook to burn a pair of timeouts in the opening five minutes of play.
- The Great Danes led by as many as 15 points halfway through the first half, though the Seawolves fought back to within six points after a CJ Luster II three with 6:40 remaining in the half.
- After its slow start on both ends, Stony Brook found a bit of a groove and made it a one-possession game after a pair of free throw by Joe Octave with three-and-a-half minutes left to play in the first half. A basket by Octave before the buzzer made it a 36-31 game in favor of UAlbany at the break.
- The Great Danes started the second half strong, scoring nine of the first 10 points to push their advantage to 13 points.
- Stony Brook's deficit ballooned to 19 points, 55-36, with 14 minutes to play after an 8-0 run by the Great Danes. Following a timeout, baskets from Jared Frey, Nick Woodard and Quin Gorman made it a 13-point contest.
- The Seawolves continued to chip away, turning stops on the defensive end into points on the offensive side of the ball. Stony Brook whittled its deficit to single digits after a steal and a score with seven minutes to play.
- Back-to-back buckets from Frey and a second-chance basket by Ben Wight made it 65-61 in favor of UAlbany with 4:35 remaining in regulation.
- After an answer by the Great Danes, Wight finished through contact and converted on an and-one opportunity to bring the Seawolves within three points of UAlbany, 67-64, with a little more than three minutes to play.
- The Seawolves could not close the gap any further though. Stony Brook missed four of its final five shots in the final minute, falling to in-state rival UAlbany in the 85th all-time meeting between the two sides.
STATS AND NOTES
- Wight scored a season-best 19 points. He shot 8-of-13 from the field and added a team-high seven rebounds.
- Octave and Frey chipped in with 13 points apiece and Luster added 10 points to round out Stony Brook's double-digit scorers.
- Stony Brook shot 45.1 percent (14-31) overall and 55.6 percent (5-9) from three-point range in the second half. The Seawolves ended the first half shooting 34.5 percent (10-29) from the field and 10 percent (1-10) from beyond the arc.
- The Seawolves reached the 70-point mark as a team for the fifth time this season. Stony Brook had won all four previous games in which it scored 70 or more points this season.
- Stony Brook forced UAlbany into 15 turnovers and scored 17 points off of giveaways. The Seawolves turned the ball over 12 times, leading to 20 points on the other end.
- The Seawolves finished with seven steals, with Octave tallying five. Octave's five steals were a career-high mark and his five steals were the most by a Seawolf since Tyler Stephenson-Moore notched six in an overtime victory at Army (December 17, 2023) last season.
- Saturday marked the 85th all-time meeting between Stony Brook and UAlbany. The Seawolves moved to 38-47 overall against the Great Danes.
QUOTES FROM THE SEAWOLVES
"Give credit to Albany, they played very well. We got off to a bad start in both halves and battled back. I am proud of our fight to get back into the game, but unfortunately we couldn't get enough stops on the defensive end," head coach Geno Ford said. "We will learn from this and get back to work tomorrow as we prepare for the start of conference play on Thursday night."
UP NEXT
Stony Brook begins conference play on the road at Monmouth on Thursday, January 2. The Seawolves and Hawks open CAA play at 7 pm from the OceanFirst Bank Center in West Long Branch, New Jersey. The contest will stream live on SNY, FloCollege and NBC Sports Philadelphia.
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