Stony Brook guard Carson Puriefoy III makes Puriefoy I and Puriefoy II proud

After Carson Puriefoy III wrapped up a postgame radio interview, he locked eyes with his father, who had navigated through throngs of fans to meet his son behind the press table.

Carson Puriefoy II, clad in his son’s No. 10 jersey and a Stony Brook cap, had tears in his eyes.

“I just told him how proud I was,” Puriefoy II said, describing the emotional exchange as he hugged his son. “I cried like a baby.”

Tears of joy would be an understatement. Carson Puriefoy I, the Stony Brook guard’s grandfather, described his emotional state as “elated.”

Puriefoy III had just overcome a poor shooting start to score 23 points, including five foul shots in the final 2:27, to help Stony Brook defeat Vermont, 80-74, in the America East championship game Saturday at Island FCU Arena.

For the first time in the program’s 17-year Division I history, Stony Brook (26-6) earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. It was the Seawolves’ fifth trip to the conference final in the past six years and the first that ended with smiles on the Seawolves’ faces.

Said Puriefoy II, “Except for maybe the day he was born and the day I got married, happiest day of my life.”

Puriefoy, a senior, scored 16 points in the second half and combined with Jameel Warney for 39 of the 47 points Stony Brook scored in the final 15 minutes. But Puriefoy missed nine of his first 11 field-goal attempts, the last of which came the possession before Vermont opened a 48-33 lead with 15:17 remaining.

Warney — whose 43 points tied Taylor Coppenrath’s America East championship game record set in 2004 — went on a 6-0 run to cut the gap to nine, but it was Puriefoy who buried two three-pointers to bookend back-to-back threes by Trae Bell-Haynes and keep the deficit at a manageable 56-45 with 12:11 left. Puriefoy’s three-pointer with 9:03 left cut the gap to 58-53.

“I just tried to move without the ball and my teammates found me in spots that I could score,” Puriefoy said. “It was a great confidence-booster for me, personally, because I wasn’t really shooting well before that.”

In last year’s 51-50 loss to Albany in the conference championship game, Puriefoy turned the ball over and split a pair of free throws in the final minute, creating the opportunity for Peter Hooley’s game-winning three-pointer with 1.6 seconds left.

This time he went 5-for-6 from the stripe in the final 2:27, his only miss coming with a six-point lead and 11 seconds on the clock.

“One of the timeouts, we said, ‘We’ve been here before. Just make the free throws,’ ” coach Steve Pikiell said. “He looked at me, ‘Got it.’ ”

“I call him the Ice Man,” Puriefoy I said. “I figured he would come through, and he did.”

That set the stage for the emotional postgame embrace between Puriefoy and his father, who the son said last cried when he committed to Stony Brook.

“Seeing after the game, sharing this moment with me and my teammates, I couldn’t really explain it, honestly,” Puriefoy said. “They said they were proud of me and that it was one of the best moments of their life. It’s definitely one of the best moments of my life.”