SBU Sports: Men’s basketball topples Hofstra, advances to program’s first CAA final

Stony Brook men’s basketball continued its storybook run in the 2024 CAA Men’s Basketball Championship, defeating No. 3 seed Hofstra 63-59 on March 11 to earn its spot in the program’s first-ever CAA Championship final.

With the win, the Seawolves advanced to the CAA finals in just their second season in the conference, where they faced No. 1 seed Charleston in the championship game on March 12 at 7 p.m. (Results were not available as of press time.)

Tyler Stephenson-Moore led the Seawolves offensive attack with 23 points on 7-of-14 shooting, while Chris Maidoh added 13 and Aaron Clarke contributed 12.

The Seawolves jumped out to an 8-3 lead on baskets with four different players hitting the scoring column before the under-16 media timeout. Hofstra then responded with an 8-0 run to grab the 11-8 lead at the 14:16 mark. Later in the half, Stony Brook went on a 12-1 run over 2:30, with the final eight points contributed by Stephenson-Moore, to take a 30-23 lead with 5:02 left to play.

Hofstra grabbed seven of the final nine points of the half, cutting the Seawolves’ lead to 32-30 after the first 20 minutes. The Seawolves took a 36-32 lead early in the second half, but Hofstra out-scored Stony Brook 12-5 over a span of 6:40 for a 44-41 Pride advantage with 11:19 to play. Stony Brook tied things three times in the following seven minutes, with Stephenson-Moore draining a three to knot the game at 51 with 4:37 left.

After a 2:03 scoreless stretch, back-to-back buckets by Maidoh and Stephenson-Moore followed by a three from Noll put Stony Brook ahead 58-51 with 57 seconds remaining. Clarke made three free throws to push the lead to 10 at 46 seconds. Hofstra made a late run to get within three at 62-59 with 6.7 seconds to play, but Keenan Fitzmorris split two free throws to ice the game.

“This was a great win for us,” said head coach Geno Ford postgame. “Hofstra has pounded on us for years … so to play them and beat them in such a meaningful game is huge to our players, the program, the community and the University.”