by Kenneth Fermin
Stony Brook Men’s Basketball start to its 2019-20 campaign has looked less than stellar against some of the top NCAA mid-major teams. Stony Brook dropped games to CAA foes Delaware and Hofstra, as well as No.12-ranked Seton Hall. The Seawolves were looking for a statement victory when they battled the struggling Providence Friars, who dropped four of their last five contests entering Saturday, Dec. 14.
Providence controlled the tempo for most of the game and had several opportunities to put Stony Brook away early. But the Seawolves rolled through the punches and continued utilizing runs to erase double-digit deficits. Ultimately, the Friars picked up the 82-78 win.
The Seawolves trailed by double-digits five times and only led the game twice. Providence quickly erased Stony Brook’s first lead by going on an 11-2 run six minutes in, after junior forward Jeff Otchere converted the opening layup. The Friars carried the sizable lead through the first half, with graduate guard Luwane Pipkins’ layup off the dish from senior guard Alpha Diallo putting them up 32-18 with 3:28 to go in the half.
Stony Brook turned the contest into a game of runs, scoring three of the half’s four last baskets of the half and carrying that momentum into the second. The Seawolves capitalized off that momentum by earning 11 unanswered points starting out the second half. Junior guard Makale Foreman’s three-point splash capped off the run and gave Stony Brook its second lead.
Providence did not lose the lead for long, as Stony Brook fouls and turnovers caught up to the team. Diallo responded to a redshirt-junior forward Andrew Garcia foul and Otchere turnover by putting the Friars up 38-35 and forcing the Seawolves to burn a 30-second timeout. The errors were costly for the Stony Brook, as the 11 turnovers and 15 personal fouls in the second half kept Providence firmly in the driver’s seat. The Friars offense turned the Seawolves turnovers into 29 overall points and knocked down 22 of their 30 shot at the charity stripe.
“We thought we could get some success on some straight line-drive stuff,” Stony Brook Head Coach Geno Ford said in a postgame press conference. “We kind of went away from some of our screening and driving to play on the two. But we had 20 turnovers which is more than we usually have and I thought their 10 steals were a big factor in that.”
Stony Brook trailed by as much as 56-42 in the second half, but the offense fought back by sinking nearly 55 percent of their shots, including nine three-pointers. The Seawolves kept it entertaining in the final 41 seconds of action after Gueye knocked down a three-pointer, trimming the deficit to three. Providence head coach Ed Cooley even burned his last timeout with 11 seconds to go, after Garcia nearly stole a Providence inbound. But the redshirt-junior’s last-second buzzer-beater was not enough to tie, as the Friars picked up the victory.
Although the Seawolves failed at capturing the statement win ,their consistent ability of erasing large deficits highlighted the team’s determination. The team relied on high-octane offense and active ball movement inside the paint by shooting 43 percent and earning 24 points inside. It also challenged the team on addressing its season-long problems– turnovers. The Seawolves are second in the America East conference with 183 turnovers so far this season.
“We don’t have –necessarily– bad losses,” Ford said. “We wanted our guys to be challenged because the bottom line is, for us to win our league, Vermont can play at the level of a lot of the top mid-major teams we played in non-conference. They are heavy favorites to win [the America East] so we put ourselves in positions to battle and be challenged.”
Seawolves junior guard Elijah Olaniyi led all players with 25 points and finished one rebound shy of recording his first double-double of the season. Pipkins and sophomore guard Danny Dukes led the Friars, scoring 21 points each. Diallo finished with a double-double, recording 17 points and grabbing 12 rebounds.
Stony Brook will face arguably its toughest challenge this season against the defending NCAA National Champion Virginia Cavaliers. The No.9-ranked Cavaliers are winners of eight of their first nine games starting off the 2019-20 season. The two will play on Wednesday, Dec. 18 in Charlottesville, Va., tipping off at 6:30 p.m.
