It’s make or break time in Seawolves Country. In head coach Geno Ford’s third season at the helm of the Stony Brook men’s basketball team, the expectations have never been higher.
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.
Playing the UMass Lowell River Hawks on Feb. 27, the Seawolves were brutalizing a team they had historically dominated (15-1), a team that had never won a conference playoff game before. After halftime, everything fell apart.
The Stony Brook men’s basketball team was going to enter the America East Tournament. Although success from beyond the arc in a first game win offered hope that the team was turning a corner, the Seawolves could not carry it over to the second game.
The last two weeks offered a hefty challenge for the Stony Brook men’s basketball team, with four games against the top two teams in the America East standings. After being swept the Vermont Catamounts, the Seawolves lost all four of those contests.
Entering the weekend, the Stony Brook men’s basketball team was just a game back of the first place and had an opportunity to return to the top of the standings with a pair of games against the UMBC Retrievers, the current leader.
Still looking to regain its pre-break momentum, the Stony Brook men’s basketball team snapped a 3-game losing streak in the latter half of a road weekend series with the NJIT Highlanders in Newark on Jan. 23 and 24.
Upon the resumption of play on Jan. 16 and 17, the Stony Brook men’s basketball team found its pre-stoppage momentum suddenly upended after getting swept at home by the New Hampshire Wildcats, falling to 6-6 (4-2 AE).
The Seawolves swept the UMass Lowell River Hawks at Island Federal Arena on Dec. 27 and suddenly find themselves riding the momentum of a five-game win streak and a 6-4 (4-0 AE) record.
The Stony Brook men’s basketball team remains undefeated at their home confines of Island Federal Arena this season, as the Seawolves thoroughly beat up on an NAIA opponent, the Point Park Pioneers, by a score of 83-39 on Tuesday, Dec. 15.
