Powered by a consistent attack throughout, the Stony Brook men’s basketball team (12-6, 4-1 America East) earned its third win in a row, knocking off UAlbany 86-78 at SEFCU Arena on Jan. 22.
The team shot 62.5 percent in the second half and hit four of their six shots from outside to keep their rivals at bay and set up a first-place clash with Vermont on Wednesday night. Anthony Roberts and Jahlil Jenkins paced five Seawolves in double figures, finishing with 18 and 16 points, respectively. They combined to shoot 13-for-21 from the field.
UAlbany jumped out of the gates to a 21-12 advantage at the 12:27 mark of the first half, but Stony Brook would respond with a 10-2 run to cut it down to one. After the hosts hit a three, the Seawolves doubled them up the rest of the way en route to a 40-35 halftime lead.
The Seawolves came storming out of the gates in the second half on a 10-4 run, opening up a double-figure lead that would only get as close as four the rest of the way to secure their third win in a row.
“Very, very, very well-played game for us. I think Albany came out and played super hard. They were prepared and excited,” said head coach Geno Ford. “We kept talking in those timeouts to weather the storm and stick with our gameplan. We’ve had a little tendency to get disjointed when things aren’t going well for us but tonight we didn’t do that and hopefully that’s a big sign of growth for us going forward. I thought Albany played well. The difference in the game was 3-point shooting. Excited for our guys. It was a really hard-fought win.”
Up next, the team welcomed the Vermont Catamounts on Jan. 26 for Round 2 of a series between the top two preseason teams in the America East. Results were not available as of press time.
