Despite a 20-point performance by guard Bryan Dougher (Scotch Plains, N.J.) that included scoring his 1,000th point as a Seawolf, the Stony Brook University men’s basketball team lost to the University of Albany on Monday night, 52-50, at Pritchard Gymnasium.
The first half was a shootout in which both teams shot the ball well, yielding a 33-33 halftime score.
With just under 12 minutes to go in the first, Marcus Rouse hit a layup on a fast break, drew a foul and wound up at number 9 on SportsCenter’s Top 10.
It would be the lone highlight for the Seawolves for awhile. The Great Danes came out of the break with all guns blazing, and went on a punishing 15-4 run that was ultimately the deciding factor.
The Seawolves woke up halfway through the second half, and kept the Great Danes to just one point in the final 9:46 as Stony Brook tried to dig itself out of an 11-point hole.
Dougher went into the locker room at halftime five points away from 1,000, but it took him quite awhile to put more points on the board. It wasn’t until a three-pointer with 3:54 to go in the game that he eclipsed the mark. He became the fourth player in Stony Brook’s Division-I era to reach the milestone.
The game came down to one Seawolves possession with 11 seconds to go in the game and the score at 52-50, but the play didn’t come off right and Dougher was forced into a desperation three-pointer, which clanked off the rim and out with no chance of a rebound as time expired, leaving the Seawolves to fall to 7-10 overall and 2-3 in conference play.
Albany, led by Tim Ambrose’s 15 points, improved to 9-12 overall and 2-4 in the America East.
Stony Brook will hit the road for two games at the end of the week, taking on Boston University Thursday at 7:30 p.m., and Maine Saturday at 7 p.m.