UMBC’s Hot Shooting Proves too Much for Stony Brook

By: Ethan Hennessy

Catonsville Maryland

Wednesday night inside Chesapeake Employers Insurance Arena UMBC put on an impressive shooting display. Throughout the first twelve minutes of the game, the score remained fairly even as both teams played an up and down quick tempo game. UMBC then pushed the lead out to seven at the 6:36 mark thanks to a Nathan Johnson layup which came off one of Darnell Rodgers’ game-high 13 assists. The retrievers still led 49-44 going into the halftime break. UMBC made 9 of their 15 threes attempted.

The second half was more of the same pattern as Stony Brook could never get within striking distance. Only seven Seawolves players played meaningful minutes and the fast-paced game caught up to them. UMBC kept making their long-distance shots as well the retrievers mirrored their first-half threes attempted and made at 9-15. In the end, UMBC pulled out the win 95-84 in front of their home fans.

I talked with Stony Brook head coach Geno Ford after the game he told me “we struggled to stay in front of the ball… they’re got a lot of firepower offensively but you go down the stat-line and every one of their guys played well”.

With the win, UMBC moved back into the highly coveted second spot in the America East standings with four games to go in the regular season. The retrievers face their rival Vermont on Saturday in Burlington who just clinched the American regular-season title with a win at New Hampshire.