During the 2012-2013 season, sophomore Christa Scognamiglio was doing a lot more watching than actually playing basketball. Averaging minimal minutes at Fairfield University, the three-point artist did not get much opportunity. After sitting out a season, it has not taken long for the New Jersey native to show the what she is really worth, leading Stony Brook to a 79-63 win over Bradley.

Acting as the team’s “sixth woman,” so to speak, Scognamiglio has found her niche in the Seawolves lineup, and if that involves finding the bottom of the net too, so be it.

In only 21 minutes of action against a tough, resilient Braves team, Scognamiglio was there to make the plays that killed any momentum Bradley started to gain. Going five for nine from the field, both in the paint and beyond the arc, Scognamiglio scored an all-important 15 points, more than doubling her previous career-high of seven.

The Braves showed in the first half that they had no intentions of giving up, despite losing their previous three games by a combined 111 points.

“They’ve played great competition,” head coach Caroline McCombs said about Bradley. “I had a lot of respect for the schedule that they had had and just didn’t know where they would be so for us to jump on them early I thought was critical.”

So, even when the Seawolves got out to a 34-11 lead in the first half, the game was far from over. After the Braves closed the deficit at the end of the frame, it was Scognamiglio who made the gap bigger as Bradley looked to make a move in the second half. With 9:51 left in the game, she hit a three-pointer that gave Stony Brook a 25-point lead, the team’s largest of the contest and one that would never truly be challenged.

“I think we really worked well together,” Scognamiglio said. “ It’s really exciting.”

Not to be denied credit is senior Jessica Ogunnorin, who had arguably the most statistically significant performance of any Seawolf yet this season. She drained 20 points while fighting through the paint for 13 tough rebounds, along with snatching a couple of steals and dishing two assists.

In fact, the team’s usual top-scoring suspect, senior Sabre Proctor, had a quiet night, if 10 points and four rebounds could even be considered a slow evening for the prodigious producer.

Two other Seawolves also got into the action, with junior Brittany Snow scoring 13 points while just falling short of a double-double, with nine rebounds on a 75-percent shooting night.

Sophomore Kori Bayne-Walker turned the ball over a few more times than usual, but still turned in a strong 10-point game.

With the Thanksgiving holiday quickly approaching, it will be hard for the Seawolves to focus on their turkey and gravy with a major matchup looming on Friday. McCombs and company will head to North Carolina to play one of the storied programs in all of college sports in the Duke Blue Devils.

“From the scores that I have seen and from knowing some of their players, they are a talented team,” McCombs said. “We’re going to go out there and compete for 40 minutes.”

The Seawolves could only hope that that will be enough to spring the team to the biggest win in the history of Stony Brook basketball.