Tykei Greene leads Stony Brook to easy win over Farmingdale State
Stony Brook Seawolves guard Tykei Greene drives to the basket against Farmingdale State Rams guard Emil Williams in the second half of an NCAA basketball game at Island Federal Arena on Wednesday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
This was one last dress rehearsal for Stony Brook.
And when it was over, the Seawolves were looking forward to the curtain rising on America East Conference play and perhaps playing on March’s main stage.
"We’re trying to make it to the [NCAA] tournament," Jaden Sayles said after the Seawolves finished the non-conference portion of their season with an 87-57 rout of Farmingdale State in front of an announced crowd of 1,824 at Island Federal Credit Union Arena Wednesday.
Stony Brook is now 8-5, and will begin America East play Sunday in Hartford against the Hawks.
"That’s," Sayles continued, "the ultimate goal."
Tykei Greene led the Seawolves with 20 points and 12 rebounds. Jahlil Jenkins added 15, and Sayles finished with 13.
Stony Brook improved to 3-0 in only the third ever meeting against Division III Farmingdale State. It didn’t take long for the Seawolves to impose its will on the Rams.
Stony Brook had an 46-21 advantage at halftime, and the only questions were if the 2021-22 edition would match the 2015-16 and 2019-20 teams by scoring 91 points against the Rams, and if they would set a new series record for largest margin of victory. The 2015-16 team, in the first ever meeting between the Long Island schools, won by 49 points (91-42 on Nov. 28, 2015).
And while it only ended up as a 30-point margin of victory, the Seawolves were proud of an effort which saw them shoot 51.4% from the field (36-for-70) and 31.3% from three (10-for-32). Twenty-two of Stony Brook’s 36 baskets came off of assists.
"A lot of the baskets we had were assisted which is always good for us," Sayles said. "That’s what we’re trying to focus on doing coming into conference play."
Perhaps the only thing that went wrong for Stony Brook was Greene blowing a two-handed tomahawk dunk attempt with 12:25 left. Greene grinned sheepishly as he ran back up court on defense.
"We wanted to see some type of flashy dunk," Omar Habwe said with a laugh. "It definitely looked like he had some dead legs when he got up there."
Aaron Davis led Farmingdale State (5-7, 1-1) with 14 points.
Prior to the game, Stony Brook announced its Jan. 6 home game against UMBC has been postponed "due to COVID-19 issues within the UMBC program." The game would have been the Seawolves’ America East Conference home opener. Instead, the Jan. 8 game against Maine will now serve as Stony Brook’s conference home opener.
