SBU Sports: Men’s basketball defeats William & Mary 63-59
The Stony Brook University men’s basketball team defeated William & Mary, 63-59, on Jan. 13 at Kaplan Arena in Williamsburg, Virginia. Dean Noll paced the offense for a second straight contest, scoring a season-high 19 points.
Stony Brook’s defense was stout to begin the contest, limiting William & Mary to just one point and holding the Tribe without a made field goal over the opening five minutes. The Tribe’s second made basket came with 6:55 remaining in the opening half, trimming Stony Brook’s lead to 15-9. A 5-0 run by the Seawolves extended the lead back to double figures.
The lead for the Seawolves grew as large as 13 points down the stretch in the first half, though William & Mary connected on five-of-nine field goal attempts over the final five minutes to trim Stony Brook’s lead to nine points, 32-23, entering the half. Stony Brook held William & Mary to a 2-for-16 mark from the floor before that point.
The Seawolves maintained a comfortable advantage until midway through the second half when William & Mary pulled within three points after Caleb Dorsey began to heat up. It was a one-possession contest with 9:40 to play before a 6-0 run by Stony Brook. The Seawolves held the Tribe without a point for more than four minutes to pad their lead to nine points with five minutes to play.
Stony Brook went ice cold though, going without a field goal made for more than seven minutes and seeing the Tribe turn their nine-point deficit into a one-point lead with less than two minutes to play. A Tyler Stephenson-Moore floater put the Seawolves back in front momentarily, but William & Mary regained the advantage with 42 seconds remaining.
Despite struggling offensively most of the afternoon, Aaron Clarke came up clutch for Stony Brook in the final moments. The graduate guard buried a long three from the wing in front of the Seawolves’ bench, giving Stony Brook a lead that it would not relinquish again.
Stephenson-Moore sealed the victory with a wide-open dunk following a full-court inbound pass from Noll, sending the Seawolves home with their second road victory of conference play.
“Big win for us. Really hard schedule to start, by far the hardest in league with four of our five on the road and an overwhelming favorite at home,” head coach Geno Ford noted postgame. “We played well on both ends against two good opponents. I thought a lot of guys showed the toughness and physicality we will need in a major grind of a game today. William & Mary had an awesome crowd with no students and made it a very tough place to play today.”
The team returns to action on Jan. 18 at Delaware with tip-off scheduled for 7 p.m. at the Bob Carpenter Center with the contest streaming live on SNY, NBC Sports Philadelphia and FloHoops.
