A rough start sunk the Stony Brook men’s basketball team in a midweek affair.
On Wednesday night, the Seawolves (2-3) welcomed the Yale Bulldogs (3-3) to Stony Brook Arena. Stony Brook could not recover from being dominated on both sides of the ball in the first half, culminating in an 86-64 loss.
The Bulldogs struck early and often, mainly on the back of guard John Poulakidas, who nailed a three-pointer before connecting on a jumper, giving him seven points on a game-opening 10-2 Yale run. From there, things only worsened for the Seawolves, as Yale guard Bez Mbeng drained a shot from beyond the arch, which sparked 12 unanswered points for the Bulldogs. Shortly after, Poulakidas drilled another three from the corner to cap off the run and make it 22-4 in favor of Yale just seven minutes into the contest.
In that time period, Stony Brook’s offense could not get anything going against a tough Bulldogs defense, prompting it to shoot just one-for-10 from the field.
“[Yale] is very good positionally,” head coach Geno Ford said in a postgame press conference. “They’re big and physical inside. They made it really hard for us to finish around the basket. We really tried to make an emphasis of not coming out and jacking threes and trying to get the ball inside, and honestly we got it inside early and we couldn’t finish any of them.”
With just over eight minutes left in the first half, the Bulldogs’ momentum continued, as Mbeng flawlessly finished a fastbreak layup. After guard Joe Octave responded with a layup of his own, Yale forward Jack Molloy converted on a three-pointer to stretch his team’s advantage to 35-10. On the Bulldogs’ next possession, Poulakidas downed a jumper to extend the lead to 27 — tied for their largest lead of the night.
Although the Seawolves mounted a slight comeback, Yale shut it down by putting the finishing touches on its strong opening period with a 6-0 run to end it. Forward Nick Townsend spearheaded it with a free throw followed by a three to send the game into halftime with a 48-28 score.
“We had three of our best practices of the year coming into this game,” Ford said. “So, I was a little surprised with how poorly we started on both ends of the floor. We were awful the first 12 minutes.”
Stony Brook put up more of a fight coming out of the locker room but never had a realistic shot to make it a game. Overall, it scored 36 points in the second half but was still outscored by the Bulldogs, who registered 38.
“I thought our ability to contain the ball was poor,” Ford said. “I thought our positioning was poor. We had breakdowns in some areas that are really frustrating. We gave up six points on silly things that are just mental mistakes.”
Yale posted a 507/.450/.438 shooting line, while the Seawolves put up a .415/.500/.688 slashline.
Stony Brook lost the turnover battle 16 to six, resulting in 21 of the Bulldogs’ points coming off giveaways. Conversely, just two of the Seawolves’ 64 points came off turnovers. Additionally, Yale outrebounded Stony Brook 44-31.
Octave led the scoring effort for the Seawolves with 18 points on five-of-15 shooting from the field and seven-for-nine makes from the charity stripe. He also led the team with six rebounds. Guard C.J. Luster II tallied 16 points and made five of his eight attempts from beyond the arch. Forward Ben Wight put up eight points with five rebounds.
Poulakidas led the Bulldogs in scoring with 22 points on eight-of-12 shooting from the field, which included converting on four of his six attempts from three-point range.
Stony Brook will hit the road for another matchup against an Ivy League foe; this time, against the Columbia Lions — who are still undefeated at 6-0 after an 80-72 win over Long Island University. Opening tip-off is set for 7 p.m. on Saturday in New York City, N.Y.
