The Northeastern men’s basketball team (5-9, 0-1 CAA) fell to the Stony Brook Seawolves (8-6, 1-1 CAA), 62-53, at home Jan. 4 in its first conference game of the season.
Coming off a three-game road trip, the Huskies’ offensive woes prevailed as they shot 10/31 from the field (32.2%) and 1/9 from the three (11%) in the first half.
The Seawolves also struggled to find an offensive rhythm. In the first half, the team shot 7/30 from the field (23.3%) and 2/7 (28.5%) from the three-point line.
While Northeastern made an effort to capitalize on Stony Brook’s sluggish first-half performance, notably churning out an early 11-2 lead, the Seawolves quickly regained their momentum before the half’s conclusion, heading an 8-2 run and a 10-2 run before halftime.
With a dent in its offensive flow, Northeastern ended the half trailing 23-24 following a flurry of poor shot attempts and excessive turnovers.
Early in the second half, Stony Brook displayed a noticeable shift in its play, strikingly contrasting the team’s struggling performance in the first half. The Seawolves powered out a 14-3 run six minutes into the half that propelled them to finish the second half shooting 14/26 (53.8%) from the field.
Nonetheless, the Huskies failed to pick up momentum after halftime. Maintaining a comparable stat line to the first half, they shot 10/29 (34.5%) from the field and 3/9 (33%) from beyond the arc.
Northeastern wrapped up the game shooting 20/60 (33%) in field goals and 4/18 (22%) from the three.
Despite Northeastern’s shooting struggles, sophomore guard Masai Troutman scooped up a team-high 16 points and graduate student forward Chris Doherty piled in a strong double-double performance, contributing 15 points and 12 rebounds.
Redshirt senior forward Joe Pridgen also added eight points, marking 1,000 total points for his Husky career.
For the Seawolves, graduate guard Tyler Stephenson-Moore scored 16 of his game-high 21 points in the second half, ultimately igniting the team’s offensive spark following the halftime break and cementing its win 62-53.
“Once we start conference play, it’s always a different time of year. I thought we started the game pretty good and got off to a pretty good start by taking an early lead,” head coach Bill Coen said. “As the game went on, though, our offense really sputtered. We passed up some makeable shots and turned down good [shots] for not-so-good ones. As a whole, I thought it was more of our offense that let us down.”
The Seawolves came in winning five of their last six games. Coach Coen’s pre-game strategy focused on disrupting the Seawolves’ offensive momentum, underscoring how crucial of an element it would be for securing a victory.
“While we kept [Stony Brook] under wraps for most of the night; they made some big shots,” Coen said. “They took away our two-point game and forced us into a three-point game. And unfortunately, we just couldn’t make those tonight.”
Additionally, the Huskies were without starting graduate student guard Luka Sakota due to an injury in their previous game against the University of Rhode Island.
Coen voiced that his team struggled immensely due to Sakota’s absence leaving such a significant gap in their system.
“[Sakota] is a big part of what we do and another big part of our three-point arsenal,” Coen said. “He directs our offense, so when you take that guy out of the mix like that, it not only hurts the scoreboard in terms of points, but also, we don’t have someone giving our players the direction and confidence they need on the court.”
On Monday, the Northeastern Huskies will play Monmouth University on the road at 7 p.m.
