Two seasons ago, Stony Brook graduate guard Elijah Olaniyi came into his own, solidifying himself as a star as a junior by putting up averages of 18.0 points and 6.5 rebounds per game. The Seawolves finished 20-13 and in second place in the America East, but were bounced by Hartford in the semifinals of the conference tournament.
The plan was to ride a roster full of seniors to glory in what would have been the Stony Brook men’s basketball team’s best chance at reaching the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Tournament since 2016.
The same old demons that haunted the Seawolves all year dealt one final blow as No. 2-seeded Stony Brook (20-13) watched its season end in heartbreaking fashion with a 64-58 loss to the No. 3-seeded Hartford Hawks (18-15) on Tuesday, March 10, at Island Federal Arena in the America East semifinals.
Having made 100 buckets from beyond the arc in the campaign, Foreman broke the program’s single-season 3-pointer record, previously held by Bryan Dougher with 95 in 2009-10.
The back-and-forth battle between two offensively cold teams culminated in an unsung hero taking the winning shot, with redshirt-junior guard Makale Foreman icing the game with another clutch performance at the line.
Stony Brook ended up getting the rest of the necessary results when both UMBC and Albany lost on the same night. However, the most important one — Stony Brook’s own win — did not come to fruition.
The Stony Brook men’s basketball team had a quick turnaround after suffering a nationally-televised loss against Vermont on Thursday. Heading into the final games of the regular season, a win over one of the bottom teams in Division I was crucial to securing a top-2 seed and multiple home games in the conference playoffs.
When Vermont redshirt-senior guard Everett Duncan hit a trifecta of 3-pointers over a two and a half minute span to put his team up by 12 points with under two minutes remaining in the game, he made sure to glare at the same people who had harassed him for hours — this time, with a smirk on his face.
Murphy’s Law — anything that can go wrong will go wrong — was in full effect for the Stony Brook men’s basketball team on Saturday, Feb. 8 as the Seawolves fell 81-64 to the New Hampshire Wildcats on the road in Lundholm Gymnasium.
