BY MARCUS HENRY
It was another tough home loss for Stony Brook men on Wednesday night. Albany, two-time defending America East champion, dispatched the Seawolves, 80-64, in front of 1,197. What's perplexing about the loss is the tale-of-two-halves type of performance Stony Brook put together.
The Seawolves were awful in the first half, falling behind 42-21. But they came to play in the second half, outscoring Albany, 43-38. Bad starts against good teams won't get it done. In any league.
But there were a couple of bright spots. Redshirt freshman Chris Martin scored a career-high 12 points. And 10 of those came during a 10-2 Stony Brook in the second half run that go it within 10, 65-55, with 2:58 left. There was also Demetrius Young, who scored 10 points (5-6 FG). Young has been a real positive for the team lately. He's averaging almost nine rebounds per game.
Mitch Beauford and Ricky Lucas had off nights. When those two are off, you can forget about Stony Brook winning. Lucas ended up with 15, but 13 of those came late in the second after the game was decided. Beauford managed just four points on 2-for-7 shooting.
Another positive is the team survived against the two top teams in the conference (UMBC, Albany) and weren't totally outclassed. The Seawolves clearly have a long way to go, but they aren't that far from becoming a competitive team.
And you can't fault their dedication. Beauford was in the gym doing jump shot and dribbling drills long after the game ended. And Martin was feeding him passes. That's what it's going to take for the Seawolves to make a move.