The Stony Brook University men’s basketball team dropped a conference game to the Hartford University Hawks on Sunday afternoon, losing its second conference contest and dropping to the second record in the America East (17-5, 8-2). It was the first time Stony Brook has lost to Hartford in 10 games.
The Seawolves lost the game, which had been rescheduled because of this weekend’s blizzard, by five points, 60-55, and allowing their opponents to make more than half of their shots in their second loss in 11 games. The Hawks won in large part due to their 10 three-pointers, seven of them in the second half, overcoming a nine-point deficit to win. They were a little short of 50 percent in making half of those shots.
Freshman forward Jameel Warney lead his team in points with 21, a career-high. He was successful on his first seven attempts of the game. Senior forward Tommy Brenton also performed well with 11 points, six rebounds and five assists.
Stony Brook went into the second half, leading 32-27. It expanded its lead another four points to have a 39-30 advantage with 17:03 left in the game. The Hawks then exploded for 11 straight points, nine of them coming from three straight three-pointers.
The Hawks would be unable to build a strong lead, however, and the Seawolves crept back and stood on top of a 45-44 lead with 8:49 left. At this point, Hartford’s Mark Nwakamma scored seven straight points to give his team a lead that it did not lose.
Stony Brook did come close to catching up by scoring six straight points to trail only 53-51 with 2:51 left, three of those points coming from a long shot by junior guard Anthony Jackson. It would all be in vain though, and the Hawks came away with the victory in front of their home crowd.
The Seawolves will next play Binghamton University at home at 7 p.m. on Tuesday. It will be the first of three straight games at Pritchard Gymnasium. The second of those games is against the University of Vermont, the victor of last year’s conference tournament on Stony Brook campus and the victor of its only other loss in conference play this year. They have six remaining conference games in the season.
