“In my 20 years of coaching, I have never seen anything like this before, I even asked my staff who has
played for me in the past and they say they havent seen anything like this before either” – Coach Will
The story line going into Saturdays game was second place Stony Brook was coming into town with a 4-3 record, with their most recent loss coming from the team chasing right behind them Hartford. They were playing to win, to keep their number two spot, for UAlbany on the other hand it was Senior night. So as if the team needed anymore motivation, sending their seniors on the right note, with their families present, is enough motivation. Not to mention, they are also not just rebounding from a loss,but also trying to snap a four game losing streak, with their most recent loss streming from New Hampshire.
As the game started it was a defensive battle as expected, as both teams were trying to find their rhythm, when the first timeout was called, the score was only 4-2. Once the game got going, Stony Brook found themselves with a 12-7 lead after the first timeout was called and even lead by more midway through the first half 17-9. They were capitalizing off of UAlbany turnovers, but as time was winding down to the half, UAlbany was starting to gain momentum as they cut the lead 18-15 with Hensen leading the way with 8. By halftime the Great Danes had taken the lead 23-22, with HanSen still leading the charge with10. While Stony Brook had seemed to cool off and had to gain momentum going into the second half, they were only down by one. What also was making this game close at halftime, is Stony Brook was getting away from what helped them get the lead, creating turnovers and taking low percentage shots, but both teams were not shooting well from the three.
When the second half started out UAlbany came out swinging/playing hard, the team senior leader/captain Ahmad Clark had finally reached double digit points as he led the team with 10. StonyBroo k responded with 11:03 left and Clark to had deal with it. What hurt the Great Danes down the stretch, is that their leaders on the team, Clark and Healy did not get going until the second half, at halftime Clark only had four and Healy had three. The dagger for the game was when Miles Latimer hit a three, his only one for the night with 1:08 left to give them a three point lead, after that the Sea wolves never looked back and sealed the victory. When it was all said and done, Stony Brook had rebound ed from their loss the other night to Hartford and kept hold of their spot second in the conference, but UAlbany losing streak had went to four, putting them further down in the standings and their chances of hosting a playoff game for the first round of the playoffs all went away with that loss.
After the game a clearly frustrated Will Brown, stated that he has never seen anything like this before, with the injuries and the struggles that his team is showing, he also stated that he thinks his team for the players that are healthy has hit a wall. Brown further went on to say Healy although injured, is playing, but not as effective, Hutcheson is tired and Desousa is not playing with either, to the point teams are not even guarding him and Rizzutto non effective play and the fact that he does not even start anymore was not brought up. Now with their last game being against Vermont, Coach Brown stated they will go up their ready to play, but at this point from how he was talking at the press conference , this is a game Thart is going to get them ready for conference playoffs. Hopefully they can go out with a bang, only time will tell, stay tuned!
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