Orono, Maine - Sophomore Dallis Joyner (Norfolk, Va.) scored a career-high 17 points and senior Muhammad El-Amin (Lansing, Mich.) added 1-5 but Troy Barnies scored 12 of his 18 points in the second half as the Maine Black Bears rallied for a 67-61 win over the Stony Brook University men’s basketball team on Saturday afternoon at Alfond Arena. With the loss, Stony Brook falls to 11-7 overall and 3-2 in the America East.
“Give credit to Maine, they made the stops they needed to make down the stretch and we didn’t,” Stony Brook head coach Steve Pikiell said. “We played terrific in the first half but we didn’t execute like we needed to on either end of the floor in the second half.”
Joyner scored 13 of his 17 in the first half and also finished the game with nine rebounds. Sophomore Tommy Brenton (Columbia, Md.) had six points and a game-high 12 rebounds. Barnies added a team-high nine boards for the Black Bears, who shot 60.7 percent (17-for-28) in the second half.
The Seawolves trailed 60-57 with four minutes left before sophomore Bryan Dougher (Scotch Plains, N.J.) hit one of two free throws to cut the Maine lead to two. Junior Bernal scored on a put-back lay-up to push the Black Bear lead to four before junior Chris Martin (Springfield Gardens, N.Y.) scored on a driving lay-up while getting fouled.
Brenton then hit one of two free throws with 49 seconds left to bring the Seawolves within one. But the Black Bears put the game away on their ensuing possession as Sean McNally drilled a three with 18 seconds left.
Stony Brook jumped on the Black Bears early, grabbing a 12-5 lead after five minutes behind nine points from Joyner. Murphy Burnatowski hit a three to bring Maine within four but Dougher and freshman Leonard Hayes (Voorhees, N.J.) then hit back-to-back threes to give the Seawolves an 18-8 advantage.
Maine closed its deficit to four on a Gerald McLemore three but Hayes scored on a runner in the lane to kick start a 10-0 Stony Brook run that included two three-pointers from El-Amin and a fast-break dunk from Joyner off a feed from Dougher.
The Black Bears got within nine on a Barnies hoop but Brenton then intercepted a McNally pass and took the ball the length of the court before feeding Joyner for an easy lay-up. Maine closed within nine again on two McLemore free throws with under four minutes left in the half but Brenton then collected a Hayes miss and finished a reverse lay-up while getting fouled.
Brenton hit the free throw to complete the three-point play that put SBU up 35-23. El-Amin’s fourth three of the half put the Seawolves up 40-27 but McLemore knocked down on a three on the other end to make it 40-30 heading into the break.
Stony Brook came out strong to start the second half, scoring six of first eight points of the period to take a 46-32 lead. But the Black Bears answered with a 15-2 run over the next six and a half minutes to cut the SBU lead to one with 12:20 left.
Dougher responded with a three out of a Stony Brook timeout though and Brenton then hit one of two free throws following a Maine turnover to push the SBU lead back to five. Maine eventually tied the game on a McNally lay-in before taking the lead with 6:45 left on a Barnies bucket.
The Seawolves tied the game on a Brenton dunk but Maine re-gained the lead on a Bernal lay-up. Martin hit one of two free throws to bring SBU within one before Barnies scored a put-back hoop to push the Maine lead to three.
Stony Brook returns to action on Monday, hosting UMBC at Pritchard Gymnasium in a game that will be televised on MSG Plus. For ticket information, go to www.goseawolves.org or call 631-632-WOLF.
