Through its first six games, Stony Brook's unofficial team motto this year hadn't exactly been on display.
"Defense wins games, offense tells you by how much," said forward Tommy Brenton, reciting coach Steve Pikiell's mantra. It finally struck a chord Wednesday night once the whistle blew for the start of the second half in Stony Brook's resounding 70-46 win over Fairleigh Dickinson.
"In the locker room, Coach said just go out there and play defense and we'll get the shots," guard Dave Coley said. "We did."
After a shaky first half, the Seawolves (3-4) dominated the early part of the second, going on an 18-2 run and blowing open what had been a back-and-forth game. Stony Brook shot 56 percent in the second half, and FDU couldn't keep up.
"This was like old-fashioned Stony Brook basketball," Pikiell said. "We've had signs this year, halves, but we haven't done it on a consistent basis."
Coley had 16 points, Bryan Dougher 14 and Ron Bracey 10 off the bench.
The second-half catalyst might have been Dallis Joyner, the 6-7 center who picked up two fouls in the game's first four minutes and sat until halftime. When Joyner returned, it was with a renewed bounce, and his teammates seemed to feed off of it. He made a reverse layup and grabbed an offensive rebound within the first three minutes and totaled eight rebounds and eight points.
"That's our bulldog, our beast right there," Coley said. "We need him."
Neither team shot particularly well in the first half and FDU (1-7) stayed close, trailing by just eight at halftime. Stony Brook forced 21 turnovers, drew four charges, held FDU to 34 percent shooting and just one bucket in transition. The Knights' leading scorer, Lonnie Hayes, went 0-11 from the field and failed to score a point.
"We just made an extra effort to really step up, play in our gaps, get in our stance, focus on defense tonight," Brenton said.
After back-to-back close losses, this may have been the complete game Stony Brook has been expecting. "I liked the way we were today," Pikiell said. "We played like a veteran team."
