A late rally by the Maine Black Bears would fall short on Saturday afternoon, as the Stony Brook Seawolves would hang on for a 80-72 win in America East men’s basketball action at Island Federal Credit Union Arena in Stony Brook, New York.
After both teams had early four point leads, Stony Brook took control with a 14-0 run to make it 31-17. After Maine would cut it to eight at 31-23, the Seawolves used a 12-5 spurt to increase the advantage to 43-28 at halftime. Black Bear starting guard Adefolalrin Adetogun was ejected late in the first half for a flagrant elbow. Stony Brook, playing their conference opener, would extend the advantage to as many as 21 on a three-point play by Tykei Greene with 9:06 to play. Maine made a run at the comeback trailing 73-60 with 3:17 to go with an 8-0 run, highlighted by a Ja’Shon Wright-McLeish jumper and a steal by Ata Turgut that led to a dunk by Byron Ireland to slice it to 73-68 with 1:54 left. Five is as close as the guests would get though as the Seawolves hit 7-8 from the foul line down the stretch to seal the victory improving to 9-5, 1-0 in America East.
Freshman guard Sam Ihekwoaba had a career high and game high 22 points to go along with nine rebounds and three assists in the loss for Maine. Wright-McLeish had 15 points, while Maks Klanjscek added 13 as the Black Bears fall to 3-10 and 0-2 in conference play. Stony Brook had five players in double figures in the win led by Greene and Elijah Olaniyi who had 16 points a piece. Maine is scheduled to play at New Hampshire on Wednesday night at 7 p.m.
