The Stony Brook men's basketball team connected on a season-high 11 three-pointers and held Hartford to 24 percent shooting in a 69-35 rout of the Hawks Saturday afternoon at Pritchard Gymnasium. Bryan Dougher (Scotch Plains, N.J.) and Leonard Hayes (Voorhees, N.J.) led the Seawolves with 15 points.
The Seawolves improve to 8-12 on the season, 3-5 in America East. Hartford falls to 7-14, 4-4 in the league. The 35 points Hartford scored is the fewest Stony Brook has allowed in its Division I history. Stony Brook last gave up fewer than 35 points on Nov. 30, 1992, a 102-32 win over Lehman when the Seawolves were a Division III program.
"We did a great job on defense today," head coach Steve Pikiell said. "We forced Hartford into some tough shots and did a great job forcing their best players out of sync. On offense, I thought we played with some rhythm, and our guys got some great looks at the basket. I'm proud of the effort my guys had today; we shot the ball well, played defense and rebounded."
The Seawolves led the entire game and dominated from start to finish. The team opened the game with a trifecta of three-pointers in the game's first five minutes. Hayes connected first, followed by Eric McAlister (Hightstown, N.J.) and Marcus Rouse (Upper Marlboro, Md.) to give Stony Brook a 9-2 lead early.
With 9:05 left in the first half, Rouse picked off a pass from Hartford's Anthony Minor, dribbled down court and kicked out to Anthony Jackson (Columbus, Ohio) for a wide-open three-pointer that gave the Seawolves a double-digit advantage, 19-9.
Hartford showed life with a 9-2 run that got the Hawks within three, 21-18, and forced a Stony Brook timeout, but Dougher answered the call with a three-pointer to put the Seawolves back on top by six. Danny Carter (Windsor, England) followed with a dunk off a pass from Dave Coley (Brooklyn, N.Y.), and SBU went into halftime up 28-20.
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The second half was all Stony Brook, as the team outscored Hartford 41-15. Hayes and Dougher each dumped three-pointers early on as the Seawolves built a 15-point lead with a 9-2 run. The Hawks converted back-to-back layups to pull within 11, 37-26, but the Seawolves answered with a 10-0 run, punctuated by Dougher's fourth three-pointer of the game at 11:29 to make the score 47-26.
After Hartford's Clayton Brothers had converted a layup at 14:11 of the second half, the Hawks went just 2-for-18 from the field the rest of the contest. The Hawks scored just three points in the game's final 7:50. Dougher connected on his fifth three-pointer at the 4:14 mark, bringing him just six three-pointers away from breaking the Stony Brook all-time three-point record.
Stony Brook finished the game shooting 43.6 percent from the field and 44 percent (11-for-25) from three-point range. The Seawolves outrebounded the Hawks 41-29 and turned 14 Hawks turnovers into 20 points. All 12 Seawolves that played scored points, including Chris Martin (Springfield Gardens, N.Y.), who returned to the lineup after missing the last 11 games with a knee injury.
Hartford finished the game making just 12 field goals and was only 2-for-22 from three-point range, which is usually a strength for the Hawks. Milton Burton led the team with 10 points.
The Seawolves continue their three-game homestead Monday night against UMBC at Pritchard Gymnasium at 7 p.m. For tickets, call (631) 632-WOLF or visit the Stony Brook Athletics ticket office online.
