Holding his follow through on a pro range three pointer, senior captain Dave Coley broke the 1,000 point plateau, joining an elite fraternity of 22 Seawolves to accomplish the feat.
Dropping 15 points to lead Stony Brook in their 76-54 blowout win over Cornell, Coley heard the applause from the fans in Pritchard Gymnasium as the public address announcer let the crowd know that Dave’s last three pointer of the evening did in fact enter him into the elite club of Stony Brook greats.
According to the guard, “when I heard [the announcement] I was honored”, also mentioning that, “if it wasn’t for Coach Pikiell I would never be able to reach that.” With everybody, including his coach constantly praising Coley’s toughness, nobody doubts his toughness and tenacity, doing anything he can to better himself as a teammate as one of the leaders of the Seawolves.
After the Brooklyn native has recently gotten his high school number retired and reached such a significant milestone at the college ranks, there may not be that much more for Coley to do, but the first thing on his mind is getting out there and continuing to improve, saying, “as an individual I just keep working hard, keep pushing and do whatever it takes to help my team win, night in and night out.”
Coach Pikiell had nothing but praise for his captain, in more areas than just his scoring prowess, saying “he’s a great kid…now I think he’s the best defender in the league”, also mentioning that “he’s earned everything…he’s become tougher.”
Not to overshadow an important win for the team, Stony Brook never let Cornell lead a game in which the Seawolves held the Ivy League school to less than 20% shooting from three point land for the game, where the Big Red usually thrive. Leading scorer guard Nolan Cressler was held by a variety of Stony Brook defenders to only 3 for 10 shooting from the field for 8 points.
From beginning to end the energy level on both sides of the basketball was high, as star sophomore Jameel Warney imposed his will on Cornell right away, tallying six rebounds within minutes of the opening horn, ending up with 14 points to bolster the resume for his standout season. Everybody got into the act for Stony Brook, as Ahmad Walker and Carson Puriefoy also reached double digits, with Eric McAlister nearing a double double with 9 points and 11 boards.
In what Coach Pikiell described as a “dangerous game” against a team that reached the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA tournament only four years ago, Stony Brook pounced on a quick start to pull away, and play defensively arguably their best game of the year.
Limiting the fouls as much as they did tonight will be a key for the Seawolves as they return from their holiday break against a Virginia Commonwealth team which has been known to make deep runs in the NCAA tournament come March. SNY will be carrying that game, a 9:00 tipoff on January 3rd.
