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.
Later on April 2, Mount St. Mary’s junior forward Omar Habwe also announced that he had committed to Stony Brook. Habwe had revealed on March 30 that he was planning to graduate transfer and play out his final season of eligibility with a new program.
Sophomore guard Miles Latimer entered the NCAA transfer portal on March 20. On March 30, he officially announced that he would be transferring to the Bucknell Bison of the Patriot League.
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.
Stony Brook (17-9, 8-3) squeaked out a 75-70 triumph on the road over the Binghamton Bearcats (8-16, 2-9) behind career nights from both redshirt-junior forward Andrew Garcia and freshman guard Tyler Stephenson-Moore.
The Seawolves each donned a jersey with the name of a Stony Brook Children’s Hospital patient on the back as they earned a 74-63 victory over the UMBC Retrievers.
A 10-point lead with eight and a half minutes remaining had disintegrated, but the Seawolves came out on top 84-76 against the UMass Lowell River Hawks at the Tsongas Center.
Having conceded first place in the America East after Wednesday’s loss to Hartford, the Stony Brook men’s basketball team reclaimed the top spot in the conference on Saturday, Jan. 18. Stony Brook (13-7, 4-1) rebounded from a close road defeat with a 70-62 victory over the Albany Great Danes (10-9, 3-1) at the Island Federal Credit Union Arena, snapping its opponent’s 4-game win streak in the process.
The Stony Brook men’s basketball team stepped into the Patrick Gymnasium in Burlington, Vermont having not beaten the Vermont Catamounts in nearly four years.
