Boston - Senior Bryan Dougher (Scotch Plains, N.J.) scored 21 points, all coming in the second half, but the Stony Brook men's basketball team went scoreless for the final 11:50 of the 1st half as Boston College used a 22-0 run and held off a second-half SBU rally to get past the Seawolves, 66-51, Sunday evening at Conte Forum.
The Seawolves shot a season-low 29.7 percent from the field and didn't have an answer for Boston College, which shot 47.9 percent from the floor. The Eagles were 14-for-17 from the free throw line, and the Seawolves were 4-for-5.
"Our first half was our downfall tonight," head coach Steve Pikiell said. "We couldn't make shots in the first half, and we had some open looks. Clearly, with 40 points in the second half, we are capable of scoring, but we couldn't get it done in the first half and we didn't play enough defense to stop BC."
Stony Brook got off to a great start as Boston College struggled with turnovers early. With the Eagles up 6-4, the Seawolves went on a 7-0 run that was punctuated by a junior Tommy Brenton (Columbia, Md.) steal and a sophomore Anthony Jackson (Columbus, Ohio) three-pointer that gave SBU an 11-6 lead with 11:50 remaining in the first half.
But that was when Boston College took over as the Eagles scored the next 22 points to end the half. BC took a 14-11 lead and then turned up the shooting by knocking down four consecutive three-pointers -- two each by Patrick Heckmann and Lonnie Johnson -- to go up by 15, 26-11, and pull away from the Seawolves.
Stony Brook fought to get back into the game. An 11-3 run to open the half helped cut the deficit to nine, 31-22, as Dougher scored seven of the 11 points, including a nifty teardrop to end the run. Dougher in fact scored 12 of the team's first 16 points of the half, getting the Seawolves the offensive spark they needed.
The Seawolves scored enough in the second half, but couldn't get a big defensive stop. A Dougher three-pointer at 8:33 got the Seawolves within eight, 47-39, but BC came right back down the court and scored on a Ryan Anderson dunk to make it a double digit lead again. That started a 7-1 Eagles run that ended with Lonnie Jackson's wide open three-pointer at 5:21 to make it a 54-40 game.
The Seawolves didn't get any closer than 11 points the rest of the game.
Dougher's 21 second-half points matched his career high for a single half. He also had 21 against Boston University on Jan. 2, 2010. In addition to Dougher's 21, Jackson had 14 points and made four of five shots from behind the arc. The Seawolves again reached the double-digit mark in offensive rebounds with 11, but could not capitalize, only getting two second chance points.
Stony Brook will now head back to New York and will head to the world's most famous arena, Madison Square Garden, to take on Rutgers in the MSG Holiday Festival Saturday at noon. The game will be televised live on MSG. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster.
