Seawolves’ win streak snapped at home by Rivera-Torres and Monmouth

By Zachary Wilson (@zwilsonpxp)

STONY BROOK, N.Y. — Coming home with a five-game win streak has made Stony Brook feel confident as the race in the CAA has started to become critical with where the Seawolves stand. 

Monmouth, however, would show them up as they had some surprises up their sleeve tonight, leaving Long Island with a hard-fought, 76-75 road win.

Before the first media timeout of the game, the Seawolves and Hawks had only one made shot apiece, starting with Dok Muordar’s turnaround jumper, followed by Erik Pratt’s layup minutes later.

Kavion McClain, who made his Monmouth debut after transferring from Texas Southern, put down his first points as a Hawk with a three. The Hawks would eventually go on a 7-0 run by making four shots in a row and forcing six turnovers on the Seawolves within the first eight minutes of the game, leading to a Stony Brook timeout with 12:27 to go in the first half.

Monmouth created another run out of the second media timeout, this time putting up 10 unanswered points with the last 4 by Cornelius Robinson. Following Pratt’s layup, Jack Collins’ triple would give Monmouth its largest lead of the game at 17 before the Seawolves would go on a 15-5 run to close the gap, led by Pratt’s seven points during that stretch.

Stony Brook cut the Hawk advantage to 34-27 deficit with 4:41 remaining in the half, but a foul by Richard Goods to send Jason Rivera-Torres to the free throw line would spark another Monmouth run with eight unanswered, with five from Rivera-Torres.

After the final media timeout of the half, both sides would once again get only one made field goal over the course of a few minutes that would send Stony Brook to the locker room trailing 46-31, featuring 12 points off of Stony Brook’s nine first-half turnovers.

To start the second half, Andrej Shoshkikj’s inbound immediately landed into Rivera-Torres’ hands, but his missed layup would lead to Shoshkikj getting the scoring started for the home team with a three, creating an 11-2 run over the first five minutes out of halftime and cutting the deficit to 48-42.

Rivera-Torres, however, would keep things in control for the Hawks by drawing a foul while driving into the paint for a layup, putting the Monmouth lead back in double digits.

Approaching the midway point of the second half, McClain would contend with the likes of Jonah Butler and Shoshkikj on hook shots and three-point jumpers to maintain Monmouth’s lead, until Stony Brook would find another 8-0 run, started by back-to-back treys from Butler and Rob Brown III, who would put up five points during that run.

Trailing 67-60, one of the most electric plays of the night for the Seawolves would occur, as Butler lobbed a pass to Goods for a dunk while drawing contact on Robinson to complete the three-point play and make it a four-point game with over five minutes to go.

However, Rivera-Torres would get a dunk of his own after an extended possession for Stony Brook would go empty on multiple missed three-point attempts.

Down the stretch, more shots would be traded between both teams until Shoshkikj would put up a three to pull the Seawolves within 71-68 with 2:07 to go, leading to Stony Brook calling a timeout to plan its next move. The lead for the Hawks would average around three until the most critical point of the game came with under 30 seconds to go.

After the Seawolves trailed 73-72 with 26 seconds to go, McClain split his trip at the free throw line, putting the ball in the hands of Pratt with the shot clock turned off and a chance to tie or win the game. However, Pratt’s pass to Goods along the baseline would go off Goods’ hands and out of bounds, leading to Rivera-Torres sinking two more free throws to seal the win, despite Shoshkikj beating the game clock to make it a one-point loss for Stony Brook.

Pratt finished the night with a team-high 22 points, but would eventually foul out following his fifth turnover of the game that ended the Seawolves’ comeback attempt, while Shoshkikj had 18 points, his sixth straight game in double figures.

On the Monmouth side, Rivera-Torres had a game-high 25 points and tied a career high with 12 rebounds. In his Hawks debut, McClain finished with 14 points and five assists.

Following the loss, Stony Brook (14-10, 6-5 CAA) stays at home to host Northeastern on Saturday afternoon, while Monmouth (12-12, 6-5 CAA) stays on the road next Thursday and heads to Philadelphia to play Drexel.