The sellout crowd of 4,423 was in place for the 11 a.m. start in temporarily refurbished Stony Brook Arena Saturday. So were ESPNU's cameras for the nationally televised game. But when the lights came up and the director yelled, "Action!" only Maine responded on cue, jumping out to a 14-2 lead.
But coach Steve Pikiell's team turned up the heat on defense, and after going scoreless in the first half, Bryan Dougher found the range for 20 points - including the clinching free throws in overtime - to give the Seawolves a 71-69 America East victory over Maine.
At the request of America East officials, the game was moved from tiny Pritchard Gym to the Arena, which also was refurbished last March when Stony Brook hosted Big Ten power Illinois in an NIT first-round game. But it almost looked as though the Seawolves were the visitors in the unfamiliar surroundings.
"I don't think it was the setting," Dougher said. "We're not used to playing that early, and maybe that had something to do with it. We just came out flat, and we knew we had to pick it up."
Freshman guard Anthony Jackson came off the bench to score all eight of his points in a 22-11 run that put the Seawolves in front 34-33 at halftime. Danny Carter added all 12 of his points in the first half, when three SBU starters went scoreless.
Dougher missed his first two shots of the second half to extend his drought to 0-for-6, but he then caught fire, scoring 13 points in a 20-11 run that gave the Seawolves (11-14, 6-7 America East) their biggest lead over Maine (14-11, 8-5) at 54-44.
The Black Bears - who got 23 points from Gerald McLemore, 18 points and 15 rebounds from Troy Barnies and 14 points from Sean McNally - fought back to tie the score at 59 on a layup by Barnies with 31.7 seconds left, and Dougher's miss at the buzzer sent it to overtime.
Stony Brook's Leonard Hayes (16 points, six rebounds) started a 7-2 surge for a 66-61 lead by hitting a three-pointer and a jumper from the key. "We were just running simple offense, and they doubled on Bryan, the ball swung around and I was open for a three," Hayes said.
Maine narrowed the deficit to a point, but Dougher scored four of the next five Stony Brook points, including two free throws with 8.5 seconds showing for a 71-67 lead. McLemore then missed a contested three-pointer before McNally made a meaningless putback at the buzzer.
Despite a 22-8 point differential at the foul line favoring the visitors, the Seawolves overcame it by shooting 39.3 percent from three-point range (11-for-28) and by outrebounding Maine 40-34.
This was Stony Brook's second ESPN game, including an early-season win at Monmouth in a game that began at 6 a.m. "We're 2-0 on ESPN, so maybe we should sign a contract with them and play a lot more," Pikiell said. "For people to see our school, see all the red and see the place packed is great. Our guys plugged away and made Stony Brook people proud."
