Score: UAlbany 74, Stony Brook 70
Location: Island Federal Credit Union Arena in Stony Brook, N.Y.
Records: UAlbany (10-17, 5-7 AE); Stony Brook (21-6, 9-3 AE)
Short Story: UAlbany avenges an early-conference loss to rival Stony Brook, defeating the Seawolves on the road 74-70 behind strong outings from Cameron Healy, Antonio Rizzuto, and Kendall Lauderdale.
Coach Brown: “We started five freshmen tonight, and we went with five freshmen again to start the second half. I thought we played with great poise when we had opportunities not to. Stony Brook made some runs at us and we looked them right in the eye and made a run right back. The bench was good. This was Kendall Lauderdale's best game in a UAlbany uniform. I just thought we did a lot of good things. Rizzuto and Healy took turns lighting it up. This is what we're capable of, now we have to work on sustaining it.”
Key Stats
- Malachi De Sousa made his first career start
- Cameron Healy scored 14 of UAlbany's first 19 points
- UAlbany out-rebounded Stony Brook 21-15 in the first half
- Kendall Lauderdale scored a career-high 10 points in the first half, finishing with 17
- Stony Brook shot 6-13 from three in the first half
- Antonio Rizzuto scored 14-straight UAlbany points in the second half
- Three Great Danes scored in double-figures
- Stony Brook shot 1-13 from three to end the game
Recap
Wrapping up a two-game road trip, the second-to-last of the season, the University at Albany men's basketball team visited rival Stony Brook Thursday night. The Seawolves had defeated UAlbany by one in overtime at SEFCU Arena a month ago in the teams' first meeting of the season. Thursday night, the Great Danes avenged that loss, taking down Stony Brook 74-70.
UAlbany debuted a new lineup Thursday night, just its fourth different lineup of the season. The Great Danes were already one of just a handful of teams to have started four freshmen at a time this season, alongside Duke, Mount St. Mary's, and Kansas, but Thursday night the Danes featured freshmen at all five positions to start the game.
Cameron Healy came out firing, scoring UAlbany's first five points to give UAlbany an early lead. A three-pointer from Stony Brook put the Seawolves ahead 6-5 with 18:02 to go in the first. UAlbany proceeded to go on a 9-2 run to take a 14-8 lead with 15:09 remaining in the half.
After Stony Brook came back to take a 15-14 lead, UAlbany went on a 6-0 run lasting more than two minutes to go up 20-15 with 10:40 to go.
Stony Brook tied the game at 23 with 8:30 remaining in the first half. UAlbany proceeded to go on a 7-2 run to take a 30-25 lead with 6:28 to go, forcing Stony Brook to call timeout.
UAlbany's run continued to 11-2 by the 5:36 mark in the first half. Kendall Lauderdale had come off the bench and scored a career-high 10 points in five minutes of game time.
Stony Brook began clawing back late in the first after trailing by as many as nine. The Seawolves were able to close the Great Danes' lead to just three on a buzzer-beating layup on a broken play right before the halftime buzzer. UAlbany headed into the locker room with a narrow lead, 36-33.
Healy led all scorers at halftime with 16 points on 4-8 shooting, including 4-6 from three. Malachi De Sousa, making his first career start as a Great Dane, led UAlbany with three assists and two blocked shots, while Ahmad Clark and Devonte Campbell each grabbed five rebounds. As a team, UAlbany out-rebounded Stony Brook, the top rebounding team in the conference, 21-15.
Healy had connected on four three-pointers in the first half, bringing the redshirt-freshman guard within five made threes of tying UAlbany's single-season program record of 94 set in the 1999-00 season by Matthew Haggarty.
Stony Brook took a one-point lead following a 4-0 run to start the second half. After trading the lead, UAlbany responded with a 5-0 run to go up 43-39 on a three-pointer from Antonio Rizzuto.
Rizzuto scored eight-straight points for UAlbany to put the Danes up 48-42 with 14:41 to go in the second. After Stony Brook cut the lead to one, Rizzuto hit a three to put UAlbany up 51-47, scoring UAlbany's last 11.
Rizzuto hit another three out of the media time out to put UAlbany up six. His streak ended there, at 14 points, when he missed a three, but Sasha French grabbed the offensive rebound and converted the put-back to put UAlbany back up six.
A three from Healy put UAlbany up nine with 8:53 remaining. A three from Rizzuto gave UAlbany its first 10-point lead of the game, 62-52.
Trailing 68-59, Stony Brook went on a 6-1 run to cut the UAlbany lead to four with 1:02 remaining. UAlbany had not scored in nearly three minutes of game time. Clark hit one of two free throws to put UAlbany back up five with 52 seconds remaining. Stony Brook cut the lead to three with 2.4 left. De Sousa threw the in-bounds pass deep to Campbell, who was fouled with 0.7 seconds remaining. Campbell hit one of two free throws to seal the game 74-70.
Healy finished with a game-high 24 points, shooting 5-11 from three. Rizzuto added 18 points, all in the second half, and Lauderdale finished with a career-high 17 points and nine rebounds. The Great Dane defense held Stony Brook to just 5-22 from three, and the Seawolves made just one of their last 13 three-point attempts in the game.
Next: UAlbany hosts Throwback Night on Saturday, February 23 against defending America East champion UMBC. It is the penultimate home game of the 2018-19 regular season.
