Stony Brook’s men’s basketball team dropped a tough game on the road on Tuesday, losing 93-77 to the Fordham Rams. Four Seawolves recorded double-digit points, but it wasn’t enough to stop a Fordham team that shot 51.7 percent from the field and hit 13 three-pointers. Stony Brook falls to 6-3 on the season.
‘We just didn’t play well enough on the defensive side of the ball to win tonight,’ Stony Brook head coach Steve Pikiell said. ‘But give Fordham credit, they played a terrific basketball game.’
Senior Muhammad El-Amin (Lansing, MI.) scored a team-high 16 points and sophomore Dallis Joyner (Norfolk, VA.) added 15 points and 10 rebounds to record the first double-double of his career. Joyner recorded career-highs in both points and rebounds, while El-Amin went a perfect 6-for-6 from the foul line and tallied seven rebounds.
The Seawolves also received double-digit scoring performances from sophomore Bryan Dougher (Scotch Plains, NJ.), who added 13 points, and junior Chris Martin (Springfield Gardens, NY.), who scored 11 points off the bench.
Fordham’s Chris Gaston and Brenton Butler scored 25 points apiece to lead the Rams to their second win of the season.
After a slam dunk from sophomore Tommy Brenton (Columbia, MD.) gave the Seawolves an early lead of 8-6, the Rams went on a 21-9 run to take a double-digit lead at 27-17 with 8:33 left in the first half.
The Seawolves were eventually able to cut the lead to four on a three from sophomore Danny Carter (London, UK) with just over five minutes left in the half, forcing Fordham to call a timeout. Immediately after the timeout, Butler hit his fourth three-pointer of the half to extend the lead back to seven.
The lead would eventually grow to nine before four straight fastbreak points from Joyner, including a thunderous dunk, after a behind-the-back pass from El-Amin cut it down to five.
The teams would trade baskets over the final 30 seconds of the half, as Fordham went into the break on top, 44-38. Fordham shot 55.2 percent in the first half, including eight three-pointers, while Stony Brook was held to a dismal 38.2 percent from the field.
Fordham was able to extend their lead to 13 within the first five minutes of the second half. They would eventually take their largest lead of the game, 69-54, on a Lance Brown three, with eight minutes remaining in the game.
The Seawolves still trailed by 14 with five minutes left, until Carter got free for a dunk as Stony Brook scored five out of the next six points to cut the lead to 10.
But the Rams would not let up, as Alberto Estwick hit back-to-back three-pointers that put Fordham back up by 14. The Seawolves could not cut the lead to less than 12 as Fordham went on to victory.
Stony Brook shot a horrendous 39.4 percent from the field and 14.3 percent from three-point range. They also lost the rebound battle, 42-34, after averaging almost 40 rebounds in their previous eight games.
The Seawolves will hit the road again on Saturday, this time to face Colgate. Tipoff is set for 2 p.m.’
