Stony Brook was two seconds away from winning its first America East (AE) championship last season.

The Seawolves maintained control of their conference championship matchup against host Albany for almost the entire game. SBU was up by four on the Great Danes after the end of the first half and held a seven-point advantage with three minutes to play. But Albany pulled off a spectacular comeback, topped off by then-junior guard Peter Hooley’s miraculous 3-pointer with two seconds left on the clock to capture the conference crown and send the Seawolves home empty-handed.

“I think every year, everyone starts out with the same goals,” Stony Brook head coach Steve Pikiell said. “Our program, we expect to compete for league championships. We expect to do that this year, we did that last year … No matter what happened last year, you have to do it again.”

Stony Brook will look to rebound from that devastating loss and bring home the first conference title in program history in 2015-16. The Seawolves are the favorites to win the America East as they return almost all of their key players from a season ago — most notably, senior forward Jameel Warney.

Through his first three seasons as a Seawolf, Warney has been one of the best players in conference history. He was named the AE Player of the Year as a sophomore and followed up by earning the honor again as a junior after averaging 16.4 points, 11.7 rebounds and 2.5 blocks per game. Warney was also named the conference’s Defensive Player of the Year for the 2014-15 season.

Warney was just the sixth player in AE history to earn the Player of the Year award in consecutive seasons. This year, he will seek to become just the third player to win the honor three times.

“It would be a tremendous honor to win it three times in a row,” Warney said. “It would be great to be one of those few names.”

The Seawolves are also set to return two other players who were named to an AE All-Conference team last season. Senior guard Carson Puriefoy was named to the first-team after averaging 14.4 points and 3.4 assists in 2014-15 and senior forward Rayshaun McGrew was a third-team member, averaging 8.4 points and 7.9 rebounds per game last season.

“Those guys have been pillars in our program the last few years,” Pikiell said. “They give us experience, they’ve been around. We’ve won a lot of games [with them], they’re proven winners and they’re guys who have made big shots for us in big games. Just thrilled to have them back.”

Also joining the Seawolf squad this year is junior guard Lucas Woodhouse. Woodhouse transferred to Stony Brook last season after competing at Longwood University for two seasons. As a sophomore there, Woodhouse averaged 11.5 points. His 6.7 assists per game was the fifth-highest mark in the entire NCAA Division I.

“[Woodhouse] is terrific,” Pikiell said. “He’s as good a passing guard as there is in the country and he’s a very good defender. I’m thrilled. He’s tough, he shoots it, he’s a great passer … He’s long and a really unselfish point guard.”

Despite all the individual accolades accumulated, the Seawolves have never won an AE title. With all of the returning talent, Stony Brook expects to compete for the AE Championship.

“It would mean everything to me to finally capture what I’ve been missing for the last few years,” Warney said.