Army Fights Until The End But Loses to Stony Brook

By: Ethan Hennessy

West Point New York

Army struggled to get things going offensively. Throughout the Black Knight’s first eight possessions they had five turnovers and three missed shots. When the reserves came into the game to spell the starters it was more of the same. Army missed layups and close shots. On the defensive side of the ball the Black Knights gave up two top of the key threes to extend Stony Brook’s lead to 12-1 less than seven minutes into the game.

Army however kept chipping away at the lead and eventually Ryan Curry retook the lead 24-23 with 5:38 to play. The two teams went back and forth for the remainder of the half and we were tied at 36 at halftime.

In the second half Army continued to get strong play from the young players particularly Josh Scovens. “I’ve said this before Josh Scovens is a D-A-W_G his is not backing down from anybody. At his core he is a competitive warrior and we are going to win a lot of games with Josh Scovens.” The Black Knights picked up some untimely fouls forcing them to utilize their bench more than they otherwise would. Stony Brook had the lead until about two minutes remaining in regulation. Army came up with a key defensive turnover when they stole an inbounds pass, and after a timeout from Kuwik Josh Scovens his a three pointer.

Army could not convert a two attempts at the buzzer at the end of regulation and we went to overtime. Stony Brook struck first with a three pointer, but Army worked hard to counter. When I asked head coach Kevin Kuwik after the game about Army coming from behind not once but twice he said “Those guys are warriors. I want them in the foxhole with me any day of the week. I don’t think toughness is at a high level nowadays and they take it to a high level. What we’re talking about is from where we started this year… we weren’t competitively super consistently. Now we are super competitively consistently. Now the next step is finishing off those last four minutes, two minutes, overtime. We’re right there we just have to put in a little more work.

The Black Knights hit the road for their next contest when they play at San Antonio.