Jan. 2, 2001
STONY BROOK MEN'S BASKETBALL REPORT
(6-6, 1-1 this week)
Seawolves Hand Elon Sixth Straight Loss, 74-62
Stony Brook, N.Y. -- The Stony Brook men's basketball team handed Elon College its sixth straight road loss, 74-62, on Saturday afternoon at the USB Sports Complex. The Seawolves (6-6) wasted no time taking control, scoring the game's first 10 points. Jairus McCollum (Mt. Holly, N.J.) scored two baskets and Mike Konopka (Toms River, N.J.) and Josh Little (Rocky Hill, Conn.), who had 11 first-half points, each nailed a three-pointer for the 10-0 advantage. The Phoenix's Ross Sims finally got Elon on the board with a jumper at the 16:19 mark. McCollum's free throw with two minutes remaining gave the Seawolves their largest lead of the half at 37-23, and USB took a 37-25 halftime advantage. Stony Brook's Leon Brisport (Brooklyn, N.Y.) took over in the second half, scoring nine points and pulling down five rebounds. The Seawolves' largest lead came with 12:59 remaining, as Joakim Eriksson's (Ostersund, Sweden) layup gave USB a 54-33 advantage. But some late three-pointers made the final five minutes interesting. Drew Kusterman connected twice from outside and David Hall's three drew Elon to within 13 with under a minute left. Kusterman nailed another trifecta, but it was too little, too late, as clutch free throw shooting by Brisport and D.J. Munir (Providence, R.I.), who each went 4-for-4 in the final 1:16, helped lead Stony Brook to the 74-62 victory. Brisport registered his sixth double-double of the season with 15 points and 10 rebounds. Konopka and Little each contributed 11, while McCollum chipped in with 10. Dennis Gaskins led Elon with 14 points, while Larry McSwain had 12. With the win, the Seawolves equal their win total of six from last season. Elon College falls to 4-9.
Stony Brook Gives No. 10 UConn a Battle Before Losing, 67-58
Hartford, Conn. (AP) -- The ball just didn't fall for No. 10 Connecticut, but the Huskies' defense was there when it mattered most. The Huskies got 14 points from Tony Robertson and had 13 steals to hold off hot-shooting Stony Brook for a 67-58 victory Thursday night. UConn (11-1) struggled from the perimeter - 3-of-10 from 3-point range - and wasn't much better inside, either, as layups and tap-ins rolled off the rim. "It looked like there was a piece of plastic up there and how we responded wasn't how I'd like us to, but we got our 11th win," UConn coach Jim Calhoun said. UConn converted three straight Stony Brook turnovers into points during a 12-0 run late in the game to pull away. "They weren't terribly excited about playing against Stony Brook and that happens a lot" Seawolves coach Nick Macarchuk said. "We took advantage of the situation and our guys hung in there the whole game." The Seawolves (5-6) shot 75 percent in the second half and were paced by Josh Little, who was 6-of-7 from 3-point range and had a game-high 22 points. With his performance, Little became the school's 3-point career leader with 170. thought about this game since the summer. "Every day I go to the gym and I shoot late at night. This has been the game on my mind," said Little, who played despite bone chips in his left foot. Stony Brook took a 6-0 lead, while the Huskies missed seven straight shots to open the game. Robertson's 3-pointer with four minutes gone was UConn's first field goal. "We weren't prepared necessarily to have things go wrong for us, and when they went wrong, we didn't act right," Calhoun said. The lead changed nine times in the first half. Caron Butler's jumper off an inside-out feed from Robertson put UConn up 25-24 with 6:34 remaining and gave the Huskies the lead for good. Stony Brook was 4-of-6 on 3-pointers in the half, including three by Little, and trailed 34-28 at halftime. "As soon as we got our lead, they started coming right back and made it tough for us," Robertson said. The Seawolves, playing their second year in Division I, battled within 56-53 with less than five minutes left on Leon Brisport's three-point play. The Huskies countered with their 12-0 run, fueled by four points from Taliek Brown. Albert Mouring, who had three of UConn's 13 steals, finished with 12 points for UConn, as the Huskies 30 points off 24 Stony Brook turnovers. "The only way to overcome (good shooting) is to play good defense and that's what we did in the last two minutes and got the victory," Mouring said. Brisport had 13 points and nine rebounds.
STONY BROOK WOMEN'S BASKETBALL REPORT
(7-6, 0-2 this week)
Coppin State Sends Seawolves to Fourth Straight Loss
Baltimore, Md. -- Kiesha Brooks had 23 points and 12 rebounds as Coppin State (3-8) held off a furious second half rally to send Stony Brook (7-6) to its fourth straight loss Saturday afternoon, 64-56, at the Coppin Center. The Seawolves shot just 21 percent from the field and remain winless on the road this season at 0-4. Coppin State jumped out to a 13-0 lead, holding the Seawolves scoreless in the first six-plus minutes before Sherry Jordan's (Stone Mountain, Ga.) jumper made it 13-2 with 13:12 remaining in the first half. The Seawolves chipped away at the deficit and Theresa LoParrino's (Bronx, N.Y.) three-pointer with :07 left in the half drew the Pack within 34-28. A 13-3 run over a 4:31 span brought the Seawolves to within 50-49 with 5:30 to go thanks to a pair of Jordan free throws. Stony Brook got to within one two other times, the last with 3:15 to go on a LoParrino free throw to make in 54-53. However, the Eagles used a 10-3 run to close the game and snapped a seven-game losing streak. The Seawolves suffered their longest losing streak under second year head coach Trish Roberts. LoParrino led the Seawolves with 18 points while Jordan had 14 points and eight rebounds. Danielle DiGiorgio (Shirley, N.Y.) enjoyed a career-high with nine rebounds and also scored eight points. The Seawolves host Lehigh at home on January 6 at 2:00 p.m.
Stony Brook Falls to UPenn, 68-56
Philadelphia, Pa. -- The Penn women's basketball team survived a dog fight in its first game since Dec. 12 with a 68-56 win over Stony Brook in The Palestra. Senior Diana Caramanico recorded her seventh consecutive double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds as the Quakers improved to 2-5. The first half of play was not a thrill ride for the fans in The Palestra. Stony Brook's Sherry Jordan opened the scoring at the 19:16 mark, but not another point was scored by either team until Penn's Julie Epton scored on a layup at 16:27. The Quakers took the lead when senior Erin Ladley grabbed a steal and then drove the lane on a fast break at 16:07. Penn pushed the lead to 6-2 at 15:40 on a Caramanico jumper, but the four-point lead would be the most for the Quakers until the second half. The Seawolves came storming back and each team went shot-for-shot until the 6:28 mark when Kelli Cofield (Brooklyn, N.Y.) picked up her third personal foul and sent Ima Abia to the line to convert the three-point play, tying the game at 15. Stony Brook made another mini-run to go up four at 5:09 on layups by Jordan and Jill George (Manchester, N.H.), but the Quakers answered back with a 3-0 run by freshman Jewel Clark to pull Penn within one at 4:20 (18-19). Turnovers by Penn and missed free throws by Stony Brook resulted in another two minutes of non-scoring, but the Seawolves turned up the heat after a timeout and scored six straight points to take their largest lead of the game, 26-20, with 1:41 remaining in the half. Stony Brook kept that lead until it put Caramanico on the line with one second left in the game. Penn's co-captain made the first free throw, then missed the second, but freshman Jackie Froatz, seeing her first collegiate action of the season, grabbed the rebound and put it back for her first collegiate points. Stony Brook went into the locker room with a three-point lead, 27-24. Foul trouble would be the demise of both teams in the second half. Stony Brook went up by as many as seven points (31-24) with 19:13 remaining, but would fall silently by the way side. Penn stepped up its offensive prowess and tied the game at 34 on a Clark layup at 13:11. Theresa LoParrino scored for the Seawolves on the other end, but Froatz found Caramanico underneath to once again tie the game (12:42). The turning point of the night came when Epton completed a three-point play at 10:36, giving the Quakers a three-point lead (39-36) that they would not relinquish. Three Stony Brook players -- Erika Shipley (Fort Wayne, Ind.), George and Cofield -- fouled out of the game in succession and put the Quakers on the free throw line for the final 3:41 of the game. Penn came through its free throw shooting test, connecting on eight of 10 shots from the stripe and recording its second win of the season. Penn outrebounded its opponent, 48-39, with Caramanico's 10 leading the way for the Quakers. Sherry Jordan led the Seawolves with a 27-point, 12-rebound double-double, while Penn's Jewel Clark added another 15 points and eight rebounds to her rookie season totals. The Quakers shot 37 percent from the floor, but made up for some of that at the free throw line, hitting a respectable 75 percent. Stony Brook shot 36 percent from the floor and just 48 percent from the stripe.
Stony Brook Athlete Of the Week
JOSH LITTLE * MEN'S BASKETBALL
Senior * Rocky Hill, Conn.
Josh Little nailed 6-of-7 three pointers against Connecticut last Thursday to become Stony Brook's all-time career leader in three-pointers. Little's 22 points led all scorers in USB's nine-point loss to the 10th-ranked Huskies. Little has now made 173 three-pointers in his Seawolves career.
