Brenton went 10-for-14 from the foul line and pulled down eight rebounds to go with three steals. Senior Bryan Dougher (Scotch Plains, N.J.) and junior Ron Bracey (Cincinnati, Ohio) led the Seawolves with 16 points apiece while sophomore Dave Coley (Brooklyn, N.Y.) chipped in with 10.
"I was very pleased with our defense tonight," head coach Steve Pikiell said. "A lot of guys contributed to this victory. They did a great job of hanging tough against a good Cornell team."
Stony Brook (4-6) led 49-38 with 6:34 left in regulation following a free throw from senior Al Rapier (Chicago, Ill.) but Cornell (4-7) ran off 13 straight points over the next five minutes, taking a 51-49 lead on a Drew Ferry three with 1:18 left.
Bracey tied the game off a feed from Rapier with 57 seconds left and SBU forced a Ferry miss on Cornell's ensuing possession. Galal Cancer grabbed the rebound though and the Big Red called timeout with 36 seconds to go.
Senior Dallis Joyner (Norfolk, Va.) forced Cancer to miss a short jumper with three seconds left and then grabbed the rebound as the game headed to overtime.
The Seawolves never trailed in the overtime period as Brenton hit two free throws on Stony Brook's first possession and Coley then drilled a jumper with 3:27 left to push the lead to four.
Cornell's Eitan Chemerinski hit one of two free throws with 2:52 remaining to make it 55-52 but Stony Brook then ran off six straight points capped by Coley's steal and lay-up to go up eight with under two minutes left. Cornell got no closer than five the rest of the way as the Seawolves improved to 4-0 at Pritchard Gymnasium.
The teams battled evenly early, with Stony Brook holding an 8-7 advantage just over seven minutes in. But Stony Brook seized control of the game over the next eight minutes, out-scoring Cornell 19-2 to take a 27-9 lead. SBU hit five threes in the run including two each from Bracey and Dougher.
The Big Red got within 29-15 on Shonn Miller dunk but Rapier answered with two free throws and Bracey and sophomore Eric McAlister (Hightstown, N.J.) followed with a pair of jumpers to push the Stony Brook lead to 20.
Cornell scored the final five points of the half but Stony Brook still headed to the break with a 35-20 lead. SBU went 6-for-13 from three in the opening 20 minutes while forcing the Big Red to miss nine of their 10 attempts from beyond the arc.
The Big Red scored six of first eight points of the second half to trim the Stony Brook lead to 11 before Dougher knocked down his third triple of the game to give the Seawolves a 40-26 lead. Cornell continued their hot shooting though as Ferry knocked down a triple before Dwight Tarwater answered a Rapier hoop with another three to trim the Stony Brook lead to 10 with 14:44 left.
The Seawolves are right back in action on Friday, hosting Rider at Pritchard Gymnasium. Game time is set for 7 p.m. For tickets, call (631) 632-WOLF or visit GoSeawolves.org/tickets
