Rapier's 17 points lead Stony Brook

Al Rapier displayed his versatility Monday night. He acted as the point guard and took the ball upcourt, came off screens and drove in from the wings, and matched up on the inside and served as the center.

The 6-8 Rapier did it all, scoring 17 points, shooting 7-for-11 from the field and adding six rebounds for Stony Brook in a 65-59 America East win over Vermont at Pritchard Gymnasium.

Stony Brook coach Steve Pikiell was most pleased with his team's defensive play. The Seawolves (6-6, 1-0) held Vermont to 34 percent shooting from the field, and the Catamounts were 9-for-31 from two-point range.

"We played great defense, held them to a season-low 34 percent," Pikiell said. "I thought we had a good game plan on the defensive end from the start."

Stony Brook's Dave Coley (15 points) matched up against Vermont's Brendan Bald, who came in averaging more than nine points a game but was held scoreless and shot 0-for-10.

"I just want to send a message to the league that I'm going to stop every team's best player," Coley said. "Start from tonight and here on out."

Rapier, a senior, finished two points shy of his career high. The Chicago native made a crowd-pleasing play late in the first half, dribbling around a screen before driving down an open lane and finishing with an authoritative dunk. "We're at home, the fans come out and support us, so I got to give them their money's worth," he said.

Vermont (6-9, 0-1) started the second half on a 12-4 run to take a 37-36 lead. "They had the lead for a half a second. We scored right after that," Pikiell said. "We fouled them in the second half, we had no fouls in the first half and they're too good of a team to put them to the free-throw line as much as we did in the second half."

When Coley stole the ball and went coast-to-coast, hitting a fading jump shot from the right of the basket, the Seawolves had their largest lead of the game at 56-44 with 3:38 to play. "I'm a basketball player. That's a go-to move for me," Coley said. "I'm creative. Like Al, I got a little bit of tricks up my sleeve as well."

Vermont cut the gap to 61-57 with 22 seconds to play but Anthony Jackson and Coley hit four straight free throws.

Bryan Dougher scored 12 of his 14 points in the first half and combined with Rapier (11) and Coley (eight) for 31 of the Seawolves' 32 first-half points. Tommy Brenton had eight points, nine rebounds, four assists and three steals for Stony Brook, which earned its seventh straight home victory dating to last season.

Vermont's Luke Apfeld had 18 points and Sandro Carissimo added 16 points and five assists.