Stony Brook loses to Albany, 58-43

There would be no second-half offensive explosion to bail out Stony Brook this time.

The Seawolves started the game in a shooting slump and ended it that way in a 58-43 loss to host Albany Monday night at SEFCU Arena.

Stony Brook (11-15, 6-8) had an opportunity to move to .500 in America East play and solidify its fourth-place standing. But the Seawolves fell into a tie for fifth with New Hampshire as Albany moved to 13-15, 6-7.

Stony Brook coach Steve Pikiell pointed to a grueling schedule and a lack of offense.

"This was our fifth game in 11 days, and I thought it showed,'' Pikiell said. "We didn't play good defense, we didn't make shots and we were outrebounded. I thought we had some good looks at the basket early on, but nothing was going down. Give credit to Albany; they beat us.''

The game slipped away shortly after halftime. Stony Brook trailed 23-22 at the break but missed its first six shots of the second half and fell behind 31-22 on Jacobi Iati's jumper with 14:25 left.

Stony Brook didn't get on the board until Leonard Hayes (18 points) hit a jumper with 13:54 remaining. Bryan Dougher's three-pointer brought the Seawolves within 37-30 with 12:20 to play, but Tim Ambrose's three-pointer capped an 11-2 run that gave Albany a 48-32 lead with 7:05 left.

On Saturday, the Seawolves rode the back of Dougher, who scored all 20 of his points after halftime in a nationally televised 71-69 overtime win over Maine. But the junior guard struggled against Albany, scoring three points and shooting 1-for-9.

Dallis Joyner had eight points and six rebounds for Stony Brook, which shot 30.9 percent from the field (17-for-55) and 4-for-18 from three-point range.

Ambrose led Albany with 22 points. Luke Devlin had eight points and 11 rebounds.