With winter break around the corner, both Stony Brook Basketball teams will approach the end of their nonconference schedules and face some of their toughest match-ups yet.
The men’s basketball team currently stands at 3-2, heading into its match-up with Princeton on Saturday at Island Federal Credit Union Arena on a two-game winning streak. The Seawolves squared off against the Ivy League school last year, falling 77-64 on the road.
Stony Brook will then travel to South Bend, Indiana to play Notre Dame at the Atlantic Coast Conference. The Fighting Irish have made the NCAA Tournament five times in the last six seasons, with last year’s team losing in the Elite Eight and sending two players to the NBA. After an overtime loss to then-No. 17 Vanderbilt on Nov. 19, Stony Brook will have another shot at upending a premier school on its home turf on Dec. 8.
The Notre Dame game kicks off a three-game road swing for Stony Brook, with games against Northeastern and American rounding out the trip. The Dec. 17 game against the American Eagles will be the Seawolves’ second in as many years against the team, after a 59-47 home win last season.
Stony Brook then returns home for a bout against Long Island rival Hofstra on Dec. 20. The Seawolves lost to the Pride on the road last season at the hands of then-senior guard Dion Nesmith’s game-winning jumper with 1.6 seconds to go.
Stony Brook then finishes out its nonconference schedule with road games against Lehigh and New Jersey Institute of Technology, and a home game versus Columbia. The Seawolves went 2-0 against the Lions last year, but Columbia is returning guard Maodo Lo, now a senior averaging 14.8 points per game after spending his summer with the German national basketball team.
America East play begins on Jan. 6 at Binghamton, which Stony Brook topped in the first round of the conference tournament. The Seawolves’ first game against the defending America East Champion Albany Great Danes takes place on Jan. 22 on Long Island. Albany knocked Stony Brook out of 2015’s America East Championship game thanks to then-junior guard Peter Hooley’s game-winning 3-pointer.
The women’s basketball team kicks off its winter break with a high-profile match-up against Syracuse. The Oranges play host to the Seawolves, now at 3-3 following two consecutive home losses, on Dec. 6.
The women have their own Ivy League opponent in a Dec. 12 contest at Yale. Following this, the Seawolves play four out of their next five games at Island Federal Credit Union Arena entering conference play.
Stony Brook faces off against Wagner for the third straight season on Dec. 18. The Seawolves topped the Seahawks 70-51 in 2013-14 and lost 76-70 last year.
Closing Stony Brook’s nonconference schedule is a bout with Harvard on Wednesday, Dec. 30 at Island Federal Credit Union Arena. A week later, the Seawolves open up America East play with a home game against the Binghamton Bearcats.
Stony Brook’s first shot at revenge against the UMBC team that eliminated the Seawolves from last year’s America East quarterfinals comes on Jan. 13 in Baltimore. The women’s team also takes on Albany over break, with its matchup slated for Jan. 21 in the state’s capital.
