Stony Brook Men’s Basketball head coach Jeff Boals won the first game of his Stony Brook career after his team defeated the Hampton Pirates, 76-66, on the road on Saturday. However, the win came after an 88-63 loss to Towson in Maryland on Friday.
Although they defeated the Pirates, the Seawolves were losing for most of the game. Hampton guard Jermaine Marrow extended his team’s lead to 11 early in the second half, the largest lead of the game for the Pirates, and showed no signs of slowing down as he led both teams in scoring with 25 points on the day.
But Stony Brook, led by senior guard Lucas Woodhouse who had a team-high 17 points, pulled off the comeback. Just 20 seconds after Marrow pushed the Pirates’ lead to double digits, Woodhouse netted a three-pointer to cut the Seawolves’ deficit to eight.
Redshirt junior forward Roland Nyama responded by slamming down a dunk and hitting a three-pointer to cut Hampton’s lead to four.
Hampton held a one-point lead until redshirt freshman Akwasi Yeboah hit two free throws to give Stony Brook a one-point lead of its own, its first lead of the day, with 6:38 left in the game. Woodhouse would push that lead to six, laying the ball up and hitting a 3-pointer less than a minute later.
The Pirates, trying to make a comeback, fouled at every opportunity and sent the Seawolves to the free throw line six times within the last three minutes. Stony Brook went 11-12 from the line to secure its double digit lead and win the game.
Just the day before, the team succumbed to its second double-digit loss of the season when it fell to the Towson Tigers.
In the opening minutes, it looked as if the Seawolves would take the game over. Yeboah started things off with a three-pointer and two free throws. Woodhouse hit a three of his own to extend the lead to 8-0.
But Towson slowly began to chip away at Stony Brook’s lead. Towson guard Mike Morsell sunk a three-pointer to cut the lead to five and although Yeboah responded with a three of his own, Morsell would score a layup to cut the lead to six.
With 6:16 left in the first half, Towson took the lead. Guards Brian Starr and Deshaun Morman hit jumpers to take a three-point lead. Redshirt junior forward Arnaud William Adala Moto hit a layup and stole the ball, finding a streaking Morsell who extended the lead to seven with less than five minutes left to go in the half.
Towson quickly culminated a 22-0 run with 1:04 left in the half. Stony Brook missed nine shots during the run, and only got on the board after freshman guard Michael Almonacy hit two free throws to cut the Tigers’ lead to 20. But Morsell hit another layup, making it a 50-28 game in favor of Towson.
Woodhouse and junior forwards Tyrell Sturdivant and Junior Saintel all tried to do some damage control, each scoring and keeping the game respectable, but it was too little too late. Towson’s lead would fluctuate between 18 and 26 points. Stony Brook could not come back from the insurmountable lead, falling 88-63.
Stony Brook returns from its roadtrip on Nov. 30 to take on Loyola Maryland at home at 7 p.m. in the first of four straight home games. The last time the two played, the Seawolves defeated the Greyhounds 76-63 on the road.
