SBU Sports: Men’s basketball rivals Hofstra in gritty road win Feb. 8

Stony Brook men’s basketball earned an 80-75 victory over rival Hofstra in the Battle of Long Island on Feb. 8 at the Mack Complex in Hempstead. Andre Snoddy and CJ Luster II combined to score 53 points and delivered in clutch moments on both ends of the floor down the stretch to snap the Seawolves’ three-game losing streak.

Snoddy had things working offensively to start the game, helping Stony Brook overcome an early seven-point deficit. A jumper at the 11:19 mark pushed Snoddy’s point total to 12 and put the Seawolves ahead, 16-14.

Stony Brook led for a majority of the final 10 minutes of the second half, but the Pride scored twice in the final two minutes and carried a narrow 33-31 advantage into the break.

Hofstra held onto its lead for much of the second half, answering every Stony Brook attempt to whittle its deficit.

Cruz Davis connected on a trifecta at the 8:34 mark of the second half to make it a seven-point game, the largest margin between the two sides in the second half.

The Seawolves turned the tide at the 4:53 mark, ripping off eight straight points to turn their five-point deficit into a three-point lead, 66-63.

Stony Brook never trailed from that point on, though Hofstra cut the Seawolves’ advantage to one point on two occasions. The Seawolves made eight of their final nine free throws in the final minute of action, closing out a victory over Long Island rival Hofstra and snapping a three-game losing streak.

“I thought it was a hard-fought game and both teams played well. We’ve been playing well for, I think, five games in a row, and we’ve only won two of them. The schedule has flipped and we’ve caught a bunch of good teams, several of them on the road, and come up short. Today, we were able to make some plays. CJ made some big shots and Snoddy was elite. Dre was fantastic and willed us to the win,” head coach Geno Ford noted postgame.

“Collin, a freshman point guard on the road in a rivalry game, had six assists and no turnovers. There’s a lot that goes into winning and we needed all of it because it was a game that could’ve gone either way,” Ford added.

Up next, the team returns home to host Monmouth on Thursday, February 13 in the first nationally televised home game of the season. Tip-off is scheduled for 5 pm at Stony Brook Arena and will air nationally on the CBS Sports Network.