The Stony Brook men’s basketball team defeated the University of Vermont Catamounts on Friday evening in front of a sell-out crowd, 65-48, and cementing its first-place standing in the America East with a conference record of 10-2 and an overall record of 19-6 with four games left in the season.
“Our defense was where we wanted it to be,” head coach Steve Pikiell said after the game. “We’ve got a long way to go here.”
Vermont was last year’s conference tournament champion, winning the game on Stony Brook’s home court last year. The Catamounts also dealt the Seawolves their first conference loss of the season last month.
“It’s always good to get a win against them,” senior forward Tommy Brenton said; he totaled 13 points, six assists and six rebounds.
The Catamounts edged ahead of the Seawolves early in the game, but neither team was able to go on a run. Then senior guard Marcus Rouse hit two three-pointers in a row to drive the crowed into a frenzy. Coming off the bench, Rouse scored a game-high 16 points.
“I played such a terrible game against Vermont last time, so I had to redeem myself,” he said with a laugh. “I’ve accepted my role; coach said that I would be instant offense off of the bench.”
The Stony Brook bench overall scored 26 points, twice as many as Vermont’s would.
“Our depth has always been importance to us. Rouse is a key guy coming off it,” Pikiell said. “I play 10 guys. When you play defense the way we play defense, you need 10 guys. It bodes well in the future.”
Vermont kept the game close, going on a 6-0 run to reduce its deficit to 20-19. But Stony Brook responded with a 7-0 run of its own. It pushed ahead to have a 35-29 going into the locker room at halftime.
The Seawolves proceeded to clamp down on the Catamounts in the second half, allowing them to score only 19 points for the remainder of the game, or 24.1 percent shooting. By comparison, the Seawolves  made half of their shots in the second half.
Making a strong showing in the second half was freshman forward Jameel Warney, who scored 10 of Stony Brook’s 30 points in that period.
“You start seeing chances open up, and we did such a good job attacking the rim in the second half,” he said, highlighting the fact that other teams putting multiple people to defend him. “Our team is talented enough to score without me having the input. [The defense] have to pick their poison.”
During the half, the Seawolves went on an 11-point run to secure for themselves a 55-37 lead. They established for themselves a lead that Vermont would be unable to overcome. They were able to coast to another victory with the added blessing of defeating the second-ranked team in the conference.
Stony Brook will next play the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, at home at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 19. It will be the second-to-last home game of the season.