On the heels of devastating news, the Stony Brook men’s basketball team broke its four-game losing streak, beating its biggest rival.

After taking the first installment of the Battle of Long Island back on Feb. 8, the Seawolves (7-23, 3-14 CAA) welcomed the Hofstra Pride (13-17, 5-12 CAA) to Stony Brook Arena on Thursday night in the rematch. Stony Brook saw a halftime lead slip away late in the game, but rallied in the final seconds to come out with a 59-56 victory.

The Seawolves came out firing, leading 21-11 with 7:42 left in the first half. Of those 21 points, 11 came from guard C.J. Luster II, who bottomed a trio of three-pointers over the stretch. 

“My teammates get me open shots,” Luster said in a postgame press conference. “Once I start getting clean looks and get that first shot to go in, it kind of gets cooking from there.”

Despite the big early lead, Stony Brook saw this lead dwindle in the waning minutes of the half, entering the tunnel ahead just 31-26. 

Hofstra quickly closed that gap with a string of eight unanswered points. Trailing 38-32, Hofstra guards Cruz Davis and Khalil Farmer cut the deficit to just two points with consecutive layups with 15:26 to play. A minute later, Hofstra forward Silas Sunday denied guard Collin O’Connor on a layup, setting up Davis for a game-tying layup on the other end. The Pride then took their first lead since grabbing the first two points of the game on a layup by guard Jean Aranguren.

With the clock under five minutes, Hofstra began to pull away. After a three from forward Ben Wight tied the game at 51, Aranguren knocked down a shot from beyond the arc to retake the lead. Then, Aranguren extended the Pride’s lead to 56-51 with 3:49 to go with a layup.

A free throw by forward Quinn Gorman shrunk the difference to four points and guard Collin O’Connor drained a three-ball, trimming the deficit to 56-55 with 2:31 on the clock.

The next two minutes featured some strong defense, as both teams went scoreless until the 13-second mark. After inbounding the ball, O’Connor maneuvered throughout the perimeter before finding Wight underneath. Wight then delivered a bounce pass to forward Andre Snoddy, who came across the baseline and dunked the ball, giving Stony Brook a 57-56 lead.

“Everyone in the gym thought we were going to try to get [Luster] all alone,” Snoddy said. “He draws a lot of attention on the floor which lets me slip underneath. I stayed calm and patient and I knew once [Wight] caught the ball, I saw my defender sleeping a little bit and knew I was able to get it down.”  

With time to still mount an offensive drive, Hofstra took the ball up the court, putting the ball in Aranguren’s hands, who led the Pride’s scoring with 17 points. Aranguren went into the paint and tried for the game-winning layup, but had his shot sent away by Snoddy who came up with the block with four ticks left.

Seconds later, Snoddy added two from the charity stripe and a last-ditch, half court heave from Davis salted away a 59-56 Seawolves win. 

“I couldn’t be prouder of the guys to come out tonight and gut out a win over Hofstra,” head coach Geno Ford said. “If you go back to the last few years, they’ve beaten us like a drum so now we have three in a row against them which is really important to our team.”

Stony Brook shot .382/.476/.700 while turning the rock over 10 times. Conversely, Hofstra compiled a .381/.214/.500 shooting split while committing just seven turnovers.

Furthering the Pride’s struggles to hit their shots, the Seawolves held Hofstra to just 1-for-13 to start the game from three-point range. 

“I thought our ball-screen coverage was excellent,” Ford said. “You have to understand how good Aranguren and Cruz are. Those guys put a ton of pressure on us. All you can do is put your best effort and I thought we did that defensively tonight.”

Luster led the Seawolves in scoring, dropping 19 points on 7-of-18 shooting from the floor. Additionally, Luster was 5-for-9 from deep, knocking down half of Stony Brook’s 10 three-pointers. O’Connor finished second in points, scoring 17 times on 6-of-10 from the field. 

Snoddy scored just eight points — leaving him four shy of the 1,000 point milestone in his collegiate career — but grabbed 13 rebounds. 

Despite the Seawolves’ excellent defensive showing, Aranguren still managed 17 points on 7-for-16 shooting. Plotnikov shot 5-of-9 for 13 points while Davis went 5-for-16 while scoring 11. 

During the game, Stony Brook players donned a commemorative patch, honoring Elijah Olaniyi, a former player, who passed away earlier on Thursday.

“It’s a tough day,” Ford said. “For most of the day, I was in a little bit of a fog. I went in to write up the scouting report before the game and I had to sit for a few moments trying to clear my head and lock in on what needed to be said. It was a hard day for a lot of people.”

The Seawolves will wrap up their 2024-2025 regular season on Saturday, when they welcome the Elon Phoenix to Stony Brook Arena. The Phoenix have gone 17-13 this year, but just 8-9 in conference play after losing 79-76 to Monmouth. Opening tip-off is set for 6 p.m.