This Sunday, the Stony Brook Men’s Basketball team hosted the Albany Great Danes in their final contest of the regular season. The Seawolves, having secured the second seed in the conference tournament, played mostly to prevent a semi final matchup against the Great Danes in Albany. It was, however, the final game to be played in Pritchard Gymnasium barring a finals appearance without Vermont. It was a fitting swan song for the venue, as the Seawolves prevailed 73-68 in a down-to-the-wire thriller. “We opened Pritchard with a win and we had a great game to close it out today,” coach Pikiell said.

Traditionally, the last game of the regular season is Senior Night, and the program honored the four graduating seniors before the game. Senior Ben Resner made his first career start, along with seniors Anthony Jackson, Eric McAlister and Dave Coley. It was quickly apparent, though, that it would be a close contest, as Albany quickly got out to a 11-2 lead. Stony Brook was able to bounce back and take the lead. The Seawolves had a run of their own, outscoring Albany 11 to two to give them an eight point lead with three minutes left. However, Albany closed the gap to go into the locker rooms trailing by one in the half.

The second half started out looking bleak for the Seawolves, as Albany jumped ahead with a big run to start the half. They outpaced the Seawolves with strong interior play, and with eight minutes left Albany held a 10-point lead, making the end of Pritchard’s run look like it would end tragically. However, the Seawolves roared back, sparked by unbelievable three point shooting from senior Dave Coley. He hit three deep threes in the face of the defense in the last five minutes, and the crowd went berserk as each one dropped. The Seawolves had taken an eight point lead with less than a minute left, and they outlasted Albany’s late game push to wrap the game up.

The game was probably Dave Coley’s best of this season, as he scored 17 on 6-11 shooting, with four rebounds and two assists.

“Once you hit one, then you hit two then the basket looks like an ocean,” Dave Coley said.

Anthony Jackson scored 13 points with six assists, passing the 1000 point milestone in his career. Ahmad Walker also had a solid game, dropping 11 points and pulling down a team leading nine rebounds.

Stony Brook will head to Albany for the conference tournament, where they’ll face Maine in the first round.