THE BASICS:RESULT: Stony Brook 85, Hartford 72
LOCATION: IFCU Arena (Stony Brook, N.Y.)
ATTENDANCE: 3,001
RECORDS: Hartford (7-18, 2-8 America East); Stony Brook (20-6, 11-0)
THE LEAD:Pancake Thomas scored 23 points, but Stony Brook got 36 from Jameel Warney to extend the nation's longest winning streak to 16 games with an 85-72 victory over the Hartford men's basketball team on Monday.
Jalen Ross (16) and
Jack Hobbs (13) also scored in double figures in the loss for the Hawks.
Carson Puriefoy added 22 points for the Seawolves, while Ahmad Walker netted 12 as well. Hobbs led the Hawks with a season-high seven rebounds, while Thomas paced the squad with four assists. Warney nabbed 13 rebounds for SBU for his 17
th double-double of the year.
FIRST HALF:Early on, Warney was stellar, scoring 12 of the first 16 Seawolves points, but Hartford was equal to the task. Ross got the scoring going with a three-ball to make it 4-3. Thomas added two off the glass and a triple for
George Blagojevic cut the deficit to 12-8. The Hawks then cut it to two on four-straight occasions, on buckets by
Jason Dunne, Thomas,
Dougal Weir and Blagojevic, the last making it an 18-16 game at the 9:07 mark.
Stony Brook got its first breathing room of the half when Lucas Woodhouse hit a three-ball to push the lead to five, but Thomas was able to bring the Hawks back within three on a triple at the 3:43 mark. SBU was able to push the lead to as much as 10 late in the stanza, but a late triple by Ross and another by Dunne just before the halftime buzzer sent Hartford into the locker room trailing 37-31.
SECOND HALF:Out of the break, Stony Brook ran off nine straight points to begin the half for a game-high 15-point lead. But the Hawks came right back with a run of their own, using Seawolves turnovers to deliver a 6-0 run on a bucket by Hobbs and two from Ross. Stony Brook came right back, though, as consecutive three-balls pushed the lead back to 15.
Hartford was able to cut it back to 10 after Hobbs hit a three from the corner, but SBU responded, pushing the lead up to 19 at the 8:15 mark. The Hawks refused to go quietly, though, chipping away to get the advantage back down to 13 after a Thomas layup with 5:47 left. The Hawks cut the lead down to as little as 12 in the closing minutes, but Stony Brook was able to hold on for the victory.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS:• Thomas delivered his ninth 20-point game this season and his eighth in the last 12 contests.
• Hobbs matched his career high in points and finished in double figures for the first time since delivering 13 against Niagara on Nov. 24. He had scored just 18 points in the previous 11 games.
• Ross made it six-straight games in double figures, dating back to his career-high 27 at UMBC on Jan. 21. He is averaging 14.7 points over the last six contests.
• Hartford went 5-for-10 from beyond the arc in the opening stanza, but converted just 4-of-14 in the second half.
UP NEXT:Hartford returns to Chase Arena at Reich Family Pavilion for a Thursday night matchup against UMBC at 7 p.m. The contest will be Military Appreciation Night, with all active and former military members receiving free admission with their military ID. General admission tickets for all others start at just $5 and are available at HartfordHawks.com or by calling 860-768-HAWK (4295).
