Despite a valiant effort, the Stony Brook men’s basketball team was unable to fully close the gap against a Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) opponent.
Coming off a Battle of Long Island win, the Seawolves (6-20, 2-11 CAA) faced conference opponent the Monmouth Hawks (9-17, 7-6 CAA) on Thursday night at Stony Brook Arena. Stony Brook was unable to match the Hawks’ potent offense and was outscored by 10 points in a 79-69 loss.
Although Monmouth opened the scoring through forward Cornelius Robinson III, a series of scores from guard Collin O’Connor along with forwards Ben Wight and Andre Snoddy had the Seawolves up for what would be the only time during the game.
After it struggled to find its footing at first while Stony Brook’s offense got off to a solid start, Monmouth landed shot after shot for the remainder of the first half. It shot 51.6% in the first half — including going 8-for-12 in three-pointers — while the Seawolves fell off significantly and finished with 44.4% efficiency and 5-for-15 from beyond the arc during the first 20 minutes.
Down 42-31 at the start of the second period, Stony Brook faced an uphill climb of attempting to close the Hawks’ advantage. However, it got off to the perfect start, as, on its first possession of the frame, guard C.J. Luster II drilled a three from an assist by Snoddy. The tandem continued to shine thereafter, accounting for the Seawolves’ first 22 points of the second half. Luster II, in particular, was unstoppable. He accounted for 18 of those points, which included four three-pointers.
“He’s a great shooter,” head coach Geno Ford said in a postgame press conference. “And he can shoot them in tight spaces and he can shoot them contested. And that’s why he’s such a great shooter. And he’s got a short memory. He’s capable of missing one and forgetting about it. You’d think that’s a common thing but it isn’t. Most guys miss one and it affects them for a little while. He’s elite when it comes to that stuff.”
Nonetheless, despite Luster II’s heroics, Stony Brook could not get even, and the game of catch up soon began getting away from it. The Seawolves could not keep Monmouth off the board for stretches, and success in the paint for the Hawks kept them in front.
Still, with 1:47 remaining in the contest, Snoddy converted a put-back from a miss by guard Sabry Philip to make it a one-possession affair at 70-67. However, Monmouth’s continued aggressive offense shut the door. It ripped off nine unanswered points, which served as the punctuation on a season sweep of Stony Brook.
“We couldn’t get over the hump,” Ford said. “We got off to a bad start. There were three things that we talked about going into the game. We had to do a great job defensive rebounding, they had eight offensive rebounds at halftime. So that’s an F. We talked about not turning the ball over because we can’t afford turnovers. We have eight turnovers at halftime. Well, there’s another F. And then we needed our bench to be really productive because they’re deep, they play a lot of guys. We don’t have a lot of depth right now, so we need the guys coming in to give us a lift. And we didn’t get it.”
The Seawolves posted a .424/.435/.818 shooting line with 12 turnovers. Conversely, the Hawks put up a .509/.500/.750 triple slash alongside 11 giveaways.
Luster II led Stony Brook in scoring with 28 points on 10-on-18 shooting from the field, including 7-for-12 from deep. Snoddy and O’Connor contributed 14 points apiece on 5-of-12 and 5-of-11 efficiency, respectively.
Out of four double-digit scorers, Robinson III had the most points on Monmouth. He dropped 15 on 5-of-8 shooting.
The Seawolves will be back in action on Saturday in Boston, M.A. They take on the Northeastern Huskies, who are 14-12 overall and 6-7 in CAA play this season after a 67-58 victory over Campbell. The Huskies defeated Stony Brook earlier this campaign 70-66. Opening tip-off is set for 3:30 p.m.
