Two years ago, when Stony Brook men’s basketball won its first regular season America East title, the student sections poured onto the court in celebration.
But on Sunday, when the Seawolves wrapped up a second regular season championship in three years with a 55-48 victory over Maine, the Red Zone stayed put.
There are loftier goals this year.
The win – Stony Brook’s 14th America East victory, a program record – makes the Seawolves the top seed in next week’s America East championship tournament in Hartford. It also gave this year’s outgoing senior class of Dallis Joyner – who led the way with 12 points and six rebounds — Bryan Dougher, Danny Carter and Al Rapier a celebration in what was their last game at Pritchard Gymnasium.
“It’s a tremendous honor,” Carter said of winning a second title with this senior class. “We kinda came in fearless. It didn’t matter to us what the history was, we were going to make our own history. We did that, a little bit. But we’re not finished yet.”
Stony Brook will play the winner of Thursday night’s game between Binghamton and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County in the quarterfinals of the America East championship tournament next Saturday. The semifinals will be held on Sunday, March 4, and should the Seawolves win both games, the final would be played at Stony Brook.
The winner of the America East championship tournament earns the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA national championship tournament.
On Monday, it seemed a long shot that Stony Brook would even get the top seed, after a loss to Vermont gave the Catamounts the same record as the Seawolves and the inside track to the top spot via the tiebreaker.
But on Tuesday, Vermont lost to previously winless Binghamton and Stony Brook took care of business at Hartford, giving Stony Brook the opportunity to win the regular season title outright and secure the top seed with the win over Maine on Sunday.
“Coach Dan (Rickard) told us earlier in the season, Binghamton is going to win a game, we didn’t know who it was going to be against,” Joyner said. “I never lost faith, I knew that every team in this league could beat you.”
On Sunday, Stony Brook cruised through the first part of the first half, building up a 15-point lead with 8:42 to go in the half. The Seawolves were in total control, outrebounding the Black Bears 16-8 and scoring 12 second-chance points to Maine’s zero.
But a 13-4 Maine run before halftime cut the Seawolves lead to six at halftime.
The Stony Brook offense continued to sputter in the second half, as Maine cut the lead to one point early on. The Black Bears crashed the boards hard, taking the rebounding advantage and dominating inside. Dougher, who was 29 points away from the Stony Brook Division-I program scoring record coming in, was 0-for-6 from the field in the second half, finishing with nine points.
“Every team tries to limit my looks,” Dougher said. “But I missed some good ones, and I took some tough ones. They just didn’t really fall today.”
But the Seawolves were able to hang on throughout. With the lead at one, Rapier drove inside and hit the basket and drew a foul with a little under nine minutes left in the game. Joyner hit a layup immediately after, then grabbed a defensive rebound, was fouled, and sank both parts of the one-and-one to give Stony Brook some breathing room at 46-39 with 8:30 to go.
Stony Brook was able to hold on the rest of the way, buckling down on defense.
“We grinded it out, and that’s what we pride ourselves on doing,” Dougher said. “We came up with the big stops when we needed it.”
The next game for the Seawolves is the quarterfinal of the America East championship tournament in West Hartford, Conn., on Saturday, March 3.
