Stony Brook was victorious on Saturday afternoon in the America East Championship quarter-final against the Binghamton Bearcats, winning the game by a score of 72-49.
“We were able to get contributions from a lot of guys,” head coach Steve Pikiell said. “And that’s what this team is built on.”
The Seawolves have defeated the Bearcats twice already this season, the first game by a margin of 62-37 and the second, 73-47. Today’s game was Stony Brook’s 32nd victory against Binghamton out of 57 games.
Four Seawolves scored in double figures on Saturday with the team-high going to junior guard Anthony Jackson with 16 points. Also scoring in double digits were redshirt freshman forward Scott King with 13 points, freshman forward Jameel Warney with 12 points, and junior guard Dave Coley with 11 points.
Stony Brook took the lead on the first basket, a three-pointer from King, and did not look back. Stony Brook’s defense, ranked fifth best in the nation in defensive field goal percentage, held the Bearcats to 14 points in the first half compared to its own 37 points.
One of the only bright spots for Binghamton that would give the Seawolves trouble throughout the game was the play of freshman Jordan Reed, who led the game with 17 points. He finished the regular season second the in conference in points per game with 16.7.
“I feel as though we did the best we could tonight,” Jackson said. “It was one of those nights that he really had it going. We did our best to stop him.”
The Bearcats were able to improve their play in the second half and would hit more of their shots. However, it wasn’t enough to unseat Stony Brook, which was able to keep with the increasingly fast pace of the game.
With a little less than 12 minutes to play, Stony Brook had nearly double the score of Binghamton with 51 points to the Bearcats’ 26. The latter were not able to get much closer than that, and although they were able to make a little noise with some late three-pointers from Taylor Johnston and Jimmy Gray, the Seawolves were able to finish out the victory with little difficulty.
The Seawolves made only half of their free throws in the evening, hitting 10 of 20 attempts.
“I’m glad we missed them tonight,” Pikiell said. “If we miss them tomorrow, we’ll be in trouble.”
Aside from that, Stony Brook dominated nearly every facet of the game, outscoring Binghamton by more than two times in the paint, 15 to zero off of turnovers, 14 to zero in second chance points. The Seawolves bench also outscored Binghamton’s 15-12.
“I thought we did a good job in the first half especially,” Pikiell said. “It’s dangerous when you’re on a neutral site when you’re playing a team that has nothing to lose.”
Stony Brook will play in one of two semifinal games on Sunday, facing off against the victor of Saturday’s game between Albany and Maine.
