The Stony Brook Seawolves opened a three-game home stand against the Hartford Hawks on Sunday afternoon at Pritchard Gymnasium. Led by Bryan Dougher (Scotch Plains, N.J.) and Demetrius Young (Sacramento, Calif.), who both contributed 21 points, the Seawolves secured their first home conference win, a 72-63 decision that improved their overall record to 11-9, 3-4 in America East play.
“We made some tough plays,” said Stony Brook Head Coach Steve Pikiell, “And we strapped it up defensively when we had to.” The Seawolves held the Hawks to 37 percent shooting in the opening period, while they hit 50 percent of their shots.
This told the story of the entire first half, which began with back-to-back three pointers from Dougher, which gave the Seawolves a 6-0 lead.
After the teams exchanged buckets, the Seawolves started a quick 6-2 run that gave them a 16-7 lead at the under-8 media timeout. The game maintained a slow pace, until the Seawolves went on an 11-4 run, capped off by a reverse layup from Young. The spurt pushed their lead to 27-11 with just over two minutes to go in the half. A three-pointer from the Hawks’ Michael Turner ended the run, but an El-Amin layup gave the Seawolves a 29-18 lead heading into the break.
Dougher led all scorers with 11 first half points, going 3-5 from three-point land. “When you hit a couple of shots early,” said Dougher, “It gets them out of what they want to do and opens up shots for other people.” The Hawks struggled from the floor, with no player cracking the double digit mark in the first half, and the Seawolves capitalized on the other end.
The second half began by showing more of the same. After another three-pointer from Turner cut the Seawolves’ lead to eight, Tommy Brenton (Columbia, Md.) converted a three point play that ignited the crowd and gave the home team a 34-23 lead with 17 minutes left in the ball game. The Seawolves then caught fire from long range, receiving three-point buckets from Dougher and Muhammad El-Amin (Lansing, Mich.) that ballooned their lead to as many as 15.
But the Hawks did not quit, rallying back with a 16-5 run that cut the lead to 48-44 on a Jaret Von Rosenberg trifecta. Suddenly, the game was competitive again and the crowd was back into it. The Seawolves were unrattled though, calmly pushing the lead back up to 13 on two Dougher free-throws with a little under four minutes to go. The Hawks would fight to cut it back to as little as three on another Von Rosenberg three-pointer. Clutch free-throws by Young down the stretch sealed the deal, giving the Seawolves a 72-63 victory.
