Men's Basketball Ends Nation's Longest Active Winning Streak, Downs Stony Brook 82-70 for 18th Straight Home Victory
BOX SCORE
ALBANY, N.Y. – In a 2015 America East Championship rematch, University at Albany men's basketball (22-7, 11-3 AE) emerged victorious on Wednesday night, beating Stony Brook (22-5, 13-1 AE) by a score of 82-70. The Great Danes halted the longest active winning streak in Division I men's basketball at 18 games in the win, and handed Stony Brook its first conference loss.
These guys executed our game plan to a tee,” said head coach Will Brown. “This game was going to come down to one thing, which is toughness. We were the tougher team for 39 minutes. Making more toughness plays was important. I'm proud of my team; I thought our defense and rebounding was really good. The energy in the building was outstanding.”
Both teams showed early-game jitters to start, combining to commit four turnovers in the first three minutes. After the dust settled, the Seawolves took a 12-7 edge as Stony Brook's Rayshaun McGrew heated up. An and-one opportunity for McGrew at the 10:02 mark put the Seawolves up 19-13.
But UAlbany out-played Stony Brook at the three-point line in the first half, going 3-for-4 as the Seawolves went 1-for-4. Dallas Ennema and Peter Hooley drained back-to-back treys to come within three, 22-19. The pair helped fuel an 8-0 run on 6-for-7 shooting, capturing UAlbany's first lead since the opening moments of the contest, 25-24.
Meanwhile, Steve Pikiell's squad went 2-for-8 (.250) from the field with four turnovers. The Purple & Gold went 4-for-5 to close the first half with a 37-30 advantage, including a step-back Evan Singletary three for the exclamation point. Brown's squad shot 5-for-8 (.625) from three and 15-for-26 (.577) from the field in the opening stanza.
With 20 minutes to go and a sellout crowd looking for a show, UAlbany continued to shoot well to kick off the second half. When Mike Rowley picked up his third foul just 10 seconds in, the Danes responded by shooting 7-for-9. Greig Stire made room around McGrew to score six points in the spurt, while Richard Peters made a statement against Jameel Warney. The junior hit two shots, but also played solid defense to reject Warney at the rim as UAlbany registered a 50-38 lead.
After scoring 13 points in the first half, McGrew went scoreless in the second. The Seawolves went 0-for-8 from the field for a five-minute field goal drought mid-way through the period. Pikiell's squad also experienced its fair share of foul trouble between McGrew, Ahmad Walker and starting point guard Carson Puriefoy.
With the shooting disparities, the Danes began to extend their lead. Hooley hit his second trey of the contest to mark the game's widest margin, 57-42 with 8:44 on the clock.
Stony Brook brought the game back to 10, but Joe Cremo stepped up to score four points and record an assist on the next three possessions. With five minutes to go, the Seawolves failed to narrow the margin and resorted to fouling down the stretch. Hooley, Ray Sanders and Cremo hit from the charity stripe to put the to put the game out of reach.
The Purple & Gold became the second team all season to drop 80 or more points on the Seawolves, the other being ACC powerhouse Notre Dame on Dec. 8 in an 86-61 loss. The Great Danes ended the longest active winning streak in the nation by shooting 54.7% (29-53) from the field and 7-for-15 (.467) from three. Brown's squad also out-rebounded the Seawolves 37-32.
Five Great Danes recorded double figures in scoring, including Joe Cremo (16, 10-10 FT), Peter Hooley (14), Greig Stire (13), Ray Sanders (12) and Mike Rowley (10). Stire matched his career high, while Hooley went for his third career double-double with 14 &12.
Sanders notched two steals, good for fifth on the Division I single-season leaderboard with 47. He needs six more takeaways to pass E.J. Gallup (2000-01 season) in the category. Hooley's 14-point effort puts him past Don Cohen (1957-61) on the all-time career scoring list for No. 7 with 1,479 to date.
Next up, UAlbany men's basketball takes one week off before visiting UMass Lowell (11-16, 7-7 AE) on Feb. 24 at 7:00 p.m.
