After a highly competitive first half against Atlantic-10 favorite Virginia Commonwealth, Stony Brook fell 81-63 in Richmond on Friday night.
The Seawolves looked to be doing what most teams cannot against the perennial NCAA tournament darkhorse VCU, as they played their style by keeping everything in the half court early on. Minus a few turnovers and a couple of layups that rolled the wrong way off the rim, Stony Brook was hanging in there in what can be considered a measuring stick game.
The biggest number in this game was 17, as a combination of a daring press defense and energetic play on the offensive side of the ball led to a 17-0 run to open the second half.
Coach Shaka Smart’s Rams took a mere 6 minutes to not only change the momentum of the game, but take the Seawolves out of contention, giving VCU a cushion that Coach Pikiell’s team never truly challenged. To the team’s credit, they kept things together by playing the Rams even for the rest of the game by getting to the basket, but just denying a complete blowout would not be enough.
21 turnovers will almost never equate to good things, as a calm and controlled Seawolves squad became frantic during the huge run from VCU, getting the Verizon Wireless Arena crowd into the action in the process. Giving up 28 points off of turnovers was the basic cause of the loss, negating the huge advantage star Jameel Warney and Stony Brook had on the glass, taking the battle of the boards 40-26.
On the positive side, whenever the Rams did not get pressure on the ball handler, the Seawolves did a good job of getting in the lane and spreading the floor to set up good looks at shots. Stony Brook shot very well in the first half, going 52% from the floor, while being flawless from the charity stripe at the same time. Senior Dave Coley started well with a hot shooting 10 point and 6 rebound half, as he nailed a couple of early three pointers.
Lost in the fray in this game was Sophomore Jameel Warney, who did all he was able to do in what for him was a quiet night of 12 points and 8 rebounds. The chaos of the VCU press kept Stony Brook’s guards from being able to get the big man the ball down low, which could have made a big difference.
With the toughest challenges of the year out of the way, Stony Brook head back to New York with a game against Columbia before getting into the bulk of their America East schedule, starting with Hartford on January 12th, as the Seawolves look to once again take the regular season conference crown.
