THE BASICS:

RESULT:  Stony Brook 80, Hartford 64
LOCATION: IFCU Arena (Stony Brook, N.Y.)
ATTENDANCE: 4,109
RECORDS: Hartford (10-23); Stony Brook (25-6)

THE LEAD:
Jalen Ross scored 21 points and grabbed seven boards, but the Hartford men's basketball team could not complete the upset over top-seeded Stony Brook, falling in the America East Playoff Semifinals by a score of 80-64.
 
Pancake Thomas added 18 points and five rebounds for the Hawks, while Evan Cooper chipped in 10 points off the bench. Carson Puriefoy led all scorers with 22 points and added 10 rebounds, while Jameel Warney had a double-double with 21 and 13 for the Seawolves.
 
This loss marks the final game of the 2015-2016 season for the Hawks. Stony Brook will face Vermont in the America East Championship Game on Saturday.

FIRST HALF:
Hartford went to TreVaughn Wilkerson early, as the big man got two quick baskets inside to put Hartford ahead 4-2. But Stony Brook delivered a 9-0 run to take an 11-2 lead, before a big three-ball from Ross snapped the rally and cut it back to four. The Seawolves slowly pushed the lead back to eight, but Hartford countered with a 7-0 run on the strength of jumpers by Thomas and Ross and a triple for Cooper to make it 17-16.
 
From there, it was blow-for-blow, with Stony Brook and Hartford answering one another repeatedly, before Ross' triple tied the score at 31 with 3:14 on the clock. But the Seawolves were able to lock down on defense and hold the Hawks scoreless the rest of the half, ending the stanza on a 5-0 run, all by Lucas Woodhouse, to take a 36-31 lead into the locker room. Cooper and Ross led all scorers with 10 points each at the break.

SECOND HALF:
Out of the break, Stony Brook embarked on a 7-3 run to push the lead to a game-high nine, but Thomas came through with a clutch three to snap the rally and make it 43-37 in favor of the Seawolves. Stony Brook was undaunted, though, and used its defense to put together a 6-0 run and get the lead into double digits for the first time. A Jason Dunne triple snapped the rally, but SBU canned back-to-back threes and the lead advanced to 55-40 with 12:09 on the clock.
 
Hartford was able to slowly chip away at the lead, as consecutive triples for Ross got it down to eight, 57-49, with 8:30 on the clock. Then, after the Seawolves got it back to 11, a triple by Thomas returned the lead to eight once more, 61-53. But SBU got 10 straight points from Warney and Puriefoy to push the lead up to 18. The Hawks were able to get it to as little as 13 in the closing minutes, but were unable to mount a final comeback, falling by a score of 80-64.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS:
• Thomas finished the season with 566 points, the eighth most in Hartford history and the sixth most in the Hawks' Division I history. NBA Hall of Famer Vin Baker has three of the top five Hawks D-I seasons. Thomas' 81 made three-pointers were the seventh-most in Hartford lore and his .426 three-point percentage was third.
• Ross finished the season by scoring in double figures in each of the last 14 games, posting his fourth 20-point game of the year on Monday. He matched a career high with seven rebounds.
• Wilkerson scored a career-high seven points in the loss, which only adds to his steady improvement throughout the season. The freshman played a pivotal role in locking down Warney early, holding the America East Player of the Year to just seven points at the half.
• Hartford got a major boost from Cooper off the bench, as the shooter punched through 10 of the Hawk's 14 bench points to keep the score close throughout the opening half. Stony Brook's bench only managed to score seven.
• Hartford set a school record with 319 three-pointers on the season. The Hawks also had a school-record .748 free-throw percentage.
• George Blagojevic's 292 points were the sixth-most by a freshman in Hawks history. TreVaughn Wilkerson's 20 blocks were the fourth-most by a Hartford freshman.