Al Rapier displayed his versatility Monday night. He acted as the point guard and took the ball upcourt, came off screens and drove in from the wings, and matched up on the inside and served as the center.
The 6-8 Rapier did it all, scoring 17 points, shooting 7-for-11 from the field and adding six rebounds for Stony Brook in a 65-59 America East Conference victory over Vermont at Pritchard Gymnasium.
Stony Brook coach Steve Pikiell was most pleased with his team's defensive play. The Seawolves (6-6, 1-0) held Vermont to 34 percent shooting from the field, and the Catamounts were 9-for-31 from two-point range.
"We played great defense, held them to a season-low 34 percent," Pikiell said. "I thought we had a good game plan on the defense end from the start."
Stony Brook's Dave Coley (15 points) matched up against Vermont's Brendan Bald, who came in averaging more than nine points a game but was held scoreless and shot 0-for-10.
"I just want to send a message to the league that I'm going to stop every team's best player," Coley said. "Start from tonight and here on out."
Rapier, a senior, finished two points shy of his career high. The Chicago native made a crowd-pleasing play late in the first half, dribbling around a screen before driving down an open lane and finishing with an authoritative dunk.
"We're at home, the fans come out and support us, so I got to give them their money's worth," Rapier said.
Vermont (6-9, 0-1) started the second half on a 12-4 run to take a 37-36 lead.
"They had the lead for a half a second. We scored right after that," Pikiell said. "We fouled them in the second half, we had no fouls in the first half and they're too good of a team to put them to the free-throw line as much as we did in the second half."
Stony Brook regrouped and took firm control when Coley stole the ball and went coast-to-coast, hitting a fading jump shot to the right of the basket. That gave the Seawolves their largest lead of the game at 56-44 with 3:38 to play.
"I'm a basketball player. That's a go-to move for me," Coley said. "I'm creative. Like Al, I got a little bit of tricks up my sleeve as well."
Vermont cut the gap to 61-57 with 22 seconds to play but could not get any closer.
Rapier scored seven of Stony Brook's first eight points and combined with Bryan Dougher (14 points) and Coley for 31 of Stony Brook's 32 first-half points.
