Stony Brook, N.Y.— The host Stony Brook Seawolves ended
the game on a 16-3 run and defeated the ice-cold shooting
Retrievers, 69-59, at Pritchard Gymnasium.
UMBC rallied from a 10-point halftime deficit to lead by as many
as three points, at 56-53, with 6:57 remaining, but the Retrievers
made only one field goal in the final 9:47 and fell for the sixth
consecutive time to the Seawolves.
Retriever freshman forward Chase
Plummer (Elizabeth, N.J./St. Patrick) recorded his first
career double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds. He was UMBC's
America East Player of the Game, tying his season high in scoring
and setting a new one for rebounds. Seven of Plummer's rebounds
came off the offensive glass.
UMBC (3-19, 2-7 America East) shot a paltry 30 percent from the
floor, hitting 18 of 60 attempts.
Stony Brook (9-12, 4-5) was led by junior guard Bryan Dougher,
who hit two big treys down the stretch and led all scorers with 19
points.
Trailing 35-25 at intermission, Plummer highlighted a 19-11
surge with a slam dunk to bring UMBC to within 46-44 with 11:32 to
play.
The Seawolves would built the lead back to six points at 52-46,
but UMBC scored seven points without the Stony Brook touching the
ball to take its first lead of the game. Grad guardTravis
King (New Haven, Conn.) hit a layup and the ensuing free
throw, then converted a pair of technical free throws assessed to
Stony Brook's Danny Carter. The Retrievers maintained possession of
the basketball and junior guard Chris De La
Rosa (Washington Heights, N.Y.) hit two free throws to
give the visitors a 53-52 lead with 9:35 to play.
De La Rosa's jumper gave UMBC its final lead at 58-57 with 5:05
remaining, but SBU's Dave Coley hit two free throws 17 seconds
later to give the hosts the lead for good. The nation's
tenth-ranked assist leader misfired three times with a chance to
tie or give UMBC the lead and after a UMBC turnover with 2:23 to
play, Dougher hit treys on Stony Brook's next two possessions to
extend the advantage to 66-58 with 63 seconds remaining.
UMBC opened the contest by missing 12 of its first 15 shots from
the floor, eerily similar misfiring on 22 of its first 29 attempts
vs. the Seawolves on Jan. 2 in Baltimore. UMBC trailed, 18-7 at
11:07 mark of the half and missed their first eight treys before
freshman guard Jamar
Wertz (Suffolk, Va.) and King hit back-to-back shots from
behind the arc, cutting the deficit to 21-15 with 7:30 to play in
the half.
At one point, the Retrievers hit five consecutive treys, with
sophomore guard Brian
Neller (Red Bank, N.J.) burying the final three of the
half, but the visitors were just 9-of-28 from the floor (32.1%) in
the first 20 minutes and trailed Stony Brook, 35-25 at the
break.
Neller, who made his first career start, scored all nine of his
points in the first half and finished 3-of-12 from behind the
arc.
De La Rosa was the only other Retriever in double figures with
12 points, but missed 11 of 14 shots from the floor. He added five
assists and now has 140 through 22 games this season.
UMBC returns home to host Binghamton on Thursday night at the
RAC Arena. The start time is 7:30 p.m. and the game will be
televised live on MASN.
