Final Stats
Fairfield, Conn. - The Stony Brook men's basketball team was outrebounded by Sacred Heart, 39-28, and allowed its opponent to shoot 49 percent from the field as the Seawolves dropped a 74-63 decision to the Pioneers Tuesday night at the Pitt Center. Senior Dallis Joyner (Norfolk, Va.) led the Seawolves with 11 points. Junior Tommy Brenton (Columbia, Md.) added eight points, seven rebounds and three steals.
Stony Brook shot 42 percent from the field, but was just 29 percent (6-for-21) from the three-point line. The Seawolves forced 19 Sacred Heart turnovers and turned them into 30 points, but the team struggled from the free throw line, making just seven of 12 shots. Of Sacred Heart's 39 rebounds, 12 were on the offensive glass, leading to 14 second chance points.
"We didn't play our best basketball tonight," head coach Steve Pikiell said. "Give credit to Sacred Heart, they're a good team that hustled for every rebound tonight, and that gave them extra chances and made our defense work harder on every possession."
The first half proved to be sluggish for the Seawolves, who struggled with shots and turnovers. Stony Brook was just 10-for-29 (34%) from the field in the first half and committed nine turnovers.
Stony Brook trailed 6-2 when the team went on an 8-0 run to go up 10-6. Sacred Heart, which actually had 11 turnovers in the first half, came back to start hitting three-pointers. Gibson knocked down a three, and then Greenbacker hit a three to put the Pioneers up 12-10.
The offenses started picking up, and the Seawolves led again 20-19 on a Hayes three-pointer when the Pioneers went on a 15-5 run to end the first half. Evan Kelley and Chris Evans hit back-to-back three-pointers and the Pioneers expanded their lead to nine when Evans dunked the ball in transition after Justin Swidowski blocked a Hayes shot. Sacred Heart went into halftime up 34-25.
In the second half, Stony Brook opened up on a 17-8 run that was punctuated by a pair of three-point plays. Dave Coley hit a jumper from the left elbow and drew a foul. He made the free throw, and then Marcus Rouse stole the ball from Kelley and bounced a pass to Joyner, who was fouled on his dunk. He converted the three-point play and got the Seawolves to within two, 44-42, with 13:46 remaining.
But that was as close as the Seawolves would get. Sacred Heart's Stan Dulaire answered the Seawolves run with a dunk and then Stony Brook turned the ball over on back-to-back possessions. Hayes got SBU within three, 48-45, after a three-pointer at 11:24, but the Pioneers then went on a 9-0 run that spanned six minutes of game clock as the Seawolves went 0-for-3 from the field and had three turnovers in that span.
Sacred Heart seemingly iced the game on Dulaire's dunk at 2:47 that made it a 12-point game, 64-52. The Seawolves fouled to stay in the game, but got no closer than eight points.
