SBU goes small to get big victory on defense vs. Albany
Stony Brook finally pulled out of its nosedive on Saturday.
The Seawolves had lost four straight since the final day of January, but a game against America East rival Albany always seems to bring out the best in them. Stony Brook forced the Great Danes to throw up enough bricks to build a small structure as it rolled to a 59-43 victory at SEFCU Arena in Albany.
Certainly, the Seawolves (9-12, 7-8) looked vulnerable on the interior without 6-9 starters Jaden Sayles (injury) and Mouhamadou Gueye (non-COVID illness). So they packed the paint, double-teamed when the Great Danes tried to go inside and dared Albany to shoot from the perimeter.
With 6-6 guard Frankie Policelli sliding down to play center and 6-4 Tykei Greene going from small forward to power forward, Stony Brook held the Great Danes to 25.9% shooting overall and 22.2% on three-pointers. Albany (5-8, 5-6) came in averaging 70.6 points and hadn’t scored fewer than 60 in a game all season.
"Those guys took [the new assignments] personally, in a big role," said Juan Felix Rodriguez, who had 14 points and four assists. "They really helped the team win."
"Our guys were just really physical . . . and smaller guys had to accept new roles," SBU coach Geno Ford said. "Tykei Greene was just an animal on the backboard . . . We were really connected."
Greene had 13 points and 12 rebounds, his fourth double-double of the season, and Tyler Stephenson-Moore had 12 points for Stony Brook, which got the added bonus of preventing Albany from hosting a game when the conference tournament begins next weekend.
Kellon Taylor had 13 points and eight rebounds for Albany.
C.J. Kelly had all eight points as Albany took an 8-2 lead, and Ford called a timeout. The Seawolves then held Albany to 1-for-15 shooting as they produced a 20-4 burst, taking a 10-point lead on Greene’s three-pointer with 5:08 left in the half.
"I didn’t really think we were working as hard as we needed to those two possessions we called timeout,'' Ford said, "and honestly I don’t think that we had like a bad-effort play the rest of the way on defense."
Albany tied it at 27-27 early in the second half before Greene answered the tying basket with a reverse layup to start a 16-0 run.
He added a layup and another three-pointer before it was over, and Albany never got closer than 10 points after that.
Notes & quotes: Ford plans to reward some reserves with playing time because they’ve "gotten COVID-tested three times a week" and "sacrificed and stayed in a dorm by themselves for the whole year . . . They deserve that."
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
