Over 1,200 Seawolves fans packed Pritchard Gymnasium Monday night to support the men’s basketball team in its home opener. What they witnessed was a blowout, an 87-53 rout of the Mount Saint Mary College Blue Knights, as the Seawolves rolled to a 2-0 record with the win.
‘There were some good things, and it was a good game,’ said Head Coach Steve Piekiell, ‘The outcome is what it is. We’re 2-0 and we’ve got 4 of our next 5 on the road.’
Many story lines were woven into this plot that, on the outside, may seem somewhat dull. The Seawolves never trailed in this game and enjoyed a 10 point margin midway through the first half. Stony Brook managed to put together a couple of scoring runs in the first 20 minutes, and went into the halftime break with a comfortable 43-27 lead. The home team kept it pouring on in the second, kicking off a 14-0 run a few minutes into the period to establish its biggest lead of the game at 61-31. The gap would not get any smaller than 28 as the Seawolves picked up their second straight win.
Senior center Desmond Adedeji (Landover Hills, MD.) chose this night to erupt for a career high in points, tallying a total of 16 on solid 7 of 9 shooting. The senior lost 42 pounds over the summer, committing himself after the season to getting in shape and being a bigger factor come next year. ‘It’s my last year and I wanted to put everything that I had in it, so that I have no regrets,’ said Adedeji.
There was nothing to regret about his performance on Monday. After subbing in about 4 minutes into the first half, he immediately made his presence felt by connecting on a layup to give the Seawolves a 12-10 lead that it would never relinquish.’That’s what the big feller can do,’ he said about his career night.
Sophomore forward Tommy Brenton (Columbia, MD.) fell two assists shy of a triple double, filling the stats sheet with 11 points, 15 rebounds, a career-best 8 assists, and 4 steals. The gritty fan favorite even drew two technical fouls, one for hanging on to the rim after a thunderous throwdown, and another for tauntingly staring in the face of a Blue Knights player after a tip-slam.
‘I’ve rarely even gotten one tech in a game,’ said Brenton. ‘I shouldn’t have done that, they were unlike me,’ he added.
In a game in which nearly every Seawolves player saw action, including junior guard walk-on Patrick Dame (West Greenwich, RI.), many other contributions were key to helping the home team cruise. Freshman small forward Preye Preboye (Springfield, MA.) saw 18 minutes of court time and made the most of them. Seemingly feeding off the crowd’s energy, an enthusiastic Preboye picked up 12 points on 50 percent shooting, including at least 3 monstrous fast break dunks.
‘He scores, he’s high energy, and he’s got a lot to learn,’ said Coach Pikiell. ‘He’s athletic and he’s strong in the post, and he’s going to bring a lot to our program. I’m excited about where he could be, but he has a long way to go,’ he added.
Despite the favorable outcome, the coach, like all coaches do, managed to point out some areas in which his team could have made some improvements.
‘I was disappointed with our defense. We didn’t play with a lot of energy on the defensive end at the start tonight,’ he said.
The Seawolves have some time to make some adjustments before their next game, when they take on Wagner on the road Saturday evening. Tip-off is slated for 7 p.m.
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