by Kenneth Fermin
Stony Brook Basketball had plenty to celebrate heading into its final games of the 2010’s. Men’s Basketball was hot coming off its largest comeback victory of the season in the 77-74 win over American on Saturday, Dec. 21. Women’s Basketball shined in the Puerto Rico Classic with victories over Morgan State and Western Michigan in San Juan, P.R. Both teams wrapped up 2019 with victories after playing at home for the first time in over three weeks, with Men’s Basketball topping the Norfolk State Spartans 81-65 followed by Women’s Basketball beating the Bucknell Bison 78-73 in a double overtime thriller.
Stony Brook 78, Bucknell 73
Women’s basketball’s defense needed one final halt if it wanted to wrap the non-conference season with nine-straight victories. Stony Brook already saw Bucknell erase 22-10 and 40-30 deficits before sophomore guard Taylor O’Brien’s layup forced overtime. Even when the Seawolves defense thought it was over, junior guard Abby Hick threw up a cross-court prayer that swished through the basket, tying the game at 66 and forcing another overtime period.
Trailing 75-73 with 25 seconds remaining, O’Brian set up her offense in the left corner and looked towards senior forward Ellie Mack at the top of the arc for the go ahead three. But before Mack could get a hand on the ball, Stony Brook graduate forward Cheyenne Clark swooped in for the steal. Clark sealed the game by banking her layup, drawing an ecstatic reaction from the home crowd, for the eventual 78-73 victory.
The forwards on both teams highlighted the competitive game, with Clark and junior India Pagan outduling Mack and junior forward Tessa Brugler inside. Cheyenne led the contest with 16 rebounds, while Mack and Brugler combined for 16 total grabs. Pagan wrapped her impressive 2019 campaign by pacing both teams with 25 points and knocking down 61 percent of her attempts.
Stony Brook improved to a Division I program-best and America East Conference leading 12-1 record with the victory. The Seawolves did so without their lead point guard, Kaela Hilaire, who missed her second consecutive game with no timetable for return given. However, head coach Caroline McCombs noted how the team’s grittiness has contributed to its unparalleled start.
“What I like most about this group is that we’ve continued to grow as a program, and the players individually have each gotten better,”McCombs said in a press release. “That’s what you see today when we win a game like that against a great Bucknell team without our starting point guard. It was an amazing game. We were tough. We were gritty.”
Stony Brook 81, Norfolk State 65
Men’s basketball returned to Island Federal Arena after a three week road trip which included facing off against the defending National Champion, Virginia. Although Norfolk State’s competitive level is not on par with its champion intrastate rival, the Spartans looked like they could play spoiler after keeping pace with the Seawolves starting off the contest. But redshirt junior guard Makale Foreman shut down any ideas that his team would fall in front of the Stony Brook faithful in their last game of 2019.
Foreman opened up the afternoon by banking a three-point shot, setting up his busy afternoon. The guard woke up the sluggish Stony Brook offense– which shot 25 percent in the first ten minutes of the half– with his second trey of the contest, putting the Seawolves up 16-11. The redshirt junior followed that up with another three from further out, before swinging the momentum firmly in Stony Brook’s favor with a triple nearly 30 feet away from the basket.
The triplet of three-point splashes set Stony Brook up on a 21-3 run in the last eight minutes of the first, carrying the 37-17 lead into halftime. Stony Brook head coach Geno Ford noted how Foreman’s impressive long-range shooting is both a kickstart for the offense, and an NBA-level threat.
“Makale has really sparked us with his shooting,” Ford said in a press release. “He’s an elite shooter, who can get his own [shot], and he can shoot it deep. He’s got kind of Steph Curry range, where he’s able to shoot it a couple of steps behind the arc. When he gets a hot hand, he can rattle off three or four in a row, as we’ve seen many times. Today in the first half he was the reason we got the separation.”
Foreman finished the contest with 16 points and earned his second consecutive ‘five three-pointer game’.The guard’s success from behind the arc also opened up the shooting aisle for his teammates, who totalled 12 makes from long range in the contest.
The Seawolves carried the hot streak into the second half and lead by 22 after junior guard Elijah Olaniyi’s basket three minutes into the second half. Olaniyi led the contest with 20 points with 40 percent of his points coming off free throws, his last two giving Stony Brook the 81-65 win. The team converted a season-high 21 shots from the charity stripe and knocked down over 87 percent of their attempts.
Stony Brook will begin their quest for America East Championships by kicking off the conference slate in 2020. Women’s Basketball will host the UMBC Retrievers on Thursday, Jan. 2ns at 6:30 p.m. in Island Federal Arena. Men’s Basketball will battle the Maine Black Bears in a Sunday matinee on Jan. 5 at 1 p.m. in Oreno, ME.
