Normally when going up against Stony Brook, coaches have to figure out how to contain reigning America East Player of the Year Jameel Warney. But for the Binghamton men’s basketball on Sunday, it was Carson Puriefoy who caught fire and led the Seawolves (14-8, 5-2 America East) to victory.
Puriefoy scored 14 of Stony Brook’s final 16 points to cap off his career-high 27-point outing. The junior guard used a combination of 3-pointers, layups and free-throws to thwart the Bearcats (2-20, 1-6 AE), who had rallied back from a 10-point deficit to instill a one-point lead with 5:57 remaining in the game.
“I just thought there was a stretch there where [Puriefoy] took over,” BU head coach Tommy Dempsey said. “It wasn’t as much what we didn’t do, as much as their calmness, their winning program. They know how to win, they know how to win on the road, and they made big plays. But I never thought we stopped defending; I never thought we stopped fighting.”
Though the Bearcats eventually fell, 61-54, in front of a reported crowd of 2,247 at the Events Center, they were staunch from gate to gate. They effectively muffled junior center Jameel Warney’s offensive impact, limiting him to just nine points. Warney entered the game averaging 15.9 points per contest.
Six-foot-5 freshman center Bobby Ahearn took on the tall task of guarding the 6-foot-8 Warney. Aside from a brief period at the beginning of the second half — in which Warney scored back-to-back buckets — the team kept the league’s leading scorer and rebounder in check.
“We played a zone defense so I was able to get help from a lot of other guys on the team,” Ahearn said. “When I fronted, they had my back with backside help. It was kind of a group effort on the back line.”
Another of the Bearcats’ feats was to hold an advantage on the glass over the conference’s top rebounding team. Warney may have led all players with 14 rebounds, but the Bearcats pulled down 38 boards to SBU’s 34, including holding a 15-13 advantage on the offensive glass.
Sophomore guard Marlon Beck II led BU scorers with 15 points on 6-of-9 shooting, including 3-of-5 from deep. Ahearn followed up with 11 points and six rebounds, and freshmen forwards Justin McFadden and Willie Rodriguez rounded out BU’s double-digit scorers with 10 points apiece.
Even though Stony Brook pulled out to a 10-point lead on two occasions, Binghamton stayed competitive the whole way through.
After back-to-back 3-pointers from Stony Brook extended the Seawolves’ lead to 45-37, BU retaliated with a 9-0 run incited by Beck. The 5-foot-11 point guard hit a huge 3-pointer to bring the score to within five, and Rodriguez added a clutch 3-point play after driving into the lane in heavy traffic and somehow getting a shot to fall in.
Behind a free throw from Ahearn and another layup from Rodriguez, BU took the lead, 46-45, with under six minutes to play.
But Puriefoy had a quick answer for Binghamton, reinstating a lead with a 3-pointer. The Bearcats fumbled the ball on the next possession, and he converted it for a layup.
Then Puriefoy got hot. He scored seven consecutive points and almost single-handedly drove a wedge between the Seawolves and Bearcats, who could not quell him or piece together enough chances to stage a comeback.
“I think we kind of let him get his way on some plays when we definitely should have been out on him, especially knowing that he was hot on that stretch,” Beck said.
But the Bearcats kept their heads up. Once again down 10 points, 61-51, with 1:04 to go, they kept the pressure high. Both Beck and Ahearn would foul out before the buzzer sounded, but BU was getting good looks. Only one of four attempts found its mark — McFadden’s 3-pointer with 31.1 seconds remaining gave the Bearcats their last points — but the team kept fighting until the end.
“I just thought we had a great will today, a great will to win, and it was unfortunate that we didn’t play better going down the stretch after we took the lead,” Dempsey said. “But I thought our kids were ready to go, I thought they fought hard for 40 minutes, and I thought there were a lot more positives than negatives.”
The Bearcats are slated to return to action on Wednesday for a road match against UMBC. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. at Retriever Activities Center in Baltimore, Maryland.