Stony Brook, NY- In the their final home game Thursday night, Stony Brook (SB) fell behind early in the first half and couldn’t put together a strong enough effort against the conference’s second seed. The Albany Great Danes managed to shoot 52% from the field and hit 75% of their shots from downtown, all in the first half, and rolled to a 20 point win.
‘We played great the other night, but our seniors, whom I love, struggled tonight. Also, Albany made all their open shots,’ head coach Steve Pikiell said. ‘They held our leading scorer Ricky Lucas to 7 points, and he’s averaging over 15 a game.’
SB as a team had trouble finding their shot, managing only 46 points in the game. The Seawolves trailed by double digits, after shooting 35%. Mitchell Beauford from the Seawolves, led all scorers with 20 points, but no other player had double figures. Jamar Wilson’s 19 points and 6 assists and Jason Siggers 15 points and 7 rebounds led Albany, who are now 12-3 conference, 19-9 overall.
The game began with a layup by Eddie Castellanos that gave the Seawolves their only lead of the game, a 2-0 advantage that quickly turned into a 4-15 deficit. SB would struggle to score for the remainder of the half, entering the intermission down 37-17. A heave from behind half court by one of the Seawolves went in the basket just after time expired, bringing fans to their feet the first time all game.
Even though the basket didn’t count, it seemed to give the home team a morale boost. After allowing Albany to hit half of their shots in the first half, Seawolves buckled down on defense and held Albany to 36% from the field in the second.
Opening the second stanza with a more energized effort, the Seawolves would still fall behind 22-48 at the 13:33 mark, before going on an 8-0 run. This would bring the deficit down to 18 points- the closest SB would get the rest of the game. Albany then held SB in check, matching them basket for basket after the run.
Coach Pikiell said, ‘We’ve had games. We’ve just got to play 40 minutes of basketball.’ The game resembled many of the others this season, as SB would play 2 completely different halves. When they’ve put it all together, the result was a victory, as seen by last Sunday’s win against New Hampshire. Games like this one, however, show the improvement the Seawolves need, to become a team like Albany.
‘It’s progress. We went from four wins last year to nine [wins] this year. That’s just where we are.’
The last game of the regular season for the Seawolves (4-11 conference, 9-18 overall) is Sunday, Feb. 25 against Maine.’ SB looks to post one more win before the America East Tournament begins on Mar. 2.
