Rebounding from a devastating loss to Vermont last Sunday, the Stony Brook men’s basketball team recovered from a nine-point second-half deficit to beat the Northeastern University Huskies, 76-69, on Saturday afternoon in Boston.
Sophomore Dave Coley led the Seawolves with 21 points, including some clutch free throw shooting at the end of the game to seal Stony Brook’s 15th win in 17 games. Senior Dallis Joyner added a doule-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
The Seawolves (18-8) have rolled through conference play, defeating each team once with only the loss to Vermont and a January defeat at Boston University blemishing their 12-2 conference record. The loss to Vermont (19-10, 12-2 AE) gave the Catamounts the inside track to the top seed in the America East championship tournament with just two conference games to go.
Stony Brook will visit fifth place Hartford (8-19, 7-7 AE) on Tuesday before wrapping up the regular season against seventh place Maine on Feb. 26 at 1 p.m. Vermont, meanwhile, will play winless Binghamton (0-25, 0-13 AE) and second-to-last place University of Maryland, Baltimore County (4-23, 3-11) to close out its conference season before the championships begin on March 1 in Hartford.
Saturday’s game, part of the ESPN BracketBusters series, was Stony Brook’s final non-conference game of the season.
A 16-6 Northeastern run in the middle of the second half stretched the host’s lead to 55-46 with a little over eight minutes to go in the game.
But the Seawolves clawed their way back, starting with a put-back dunk by junior Tommy Brenton with 4:46 left in the game. Brenton would finish with 13 points, seven rebounds, seven assists, two blocks and two steals.
Brenton assisted on a Coley three that brought the Seawolves back within two points, then dunked again to put Stony Brook ahead for good.
“I thought we played really well today, had good energy and made big plays,” Seawolves head coach Steve Pikiell said in a press release. “At the end, we made some defensive stops, grabbed offensive rebounds and made the most of our opportunities against a very good team. Now we look forward to getting back to league play Tuesday at Hartford.”
Tuesday’s game at Hartford is scheduled to tip off at 7 p.m., and can be heard on WUSB 90.1 FM.
