WILLIAMSBURG, Va. (Courtesy of William & Mary Athletics) – Trailing by as much as 13 and by nine with just five minutes remaining, William & Mary battled all the way back to take the lead twice in the final 2:05. Stony Brook had the answers through, hitting a pair of big shots late to hold off the Tribe, 63-59, inside Kaplan Arena on Saturday afternoon.
W&M (7-10, 2-2 CAA) trailed 56-47 with 5:03 remaining, before scoring the game’s next 10 points to take its first lead. Junior Caleb Dorsey canned a triple off his own offensive rebound, and graduate student Sean Houpt followed with a trifecta from the left corner to put W&M in front 57-56 with 2:05 left. Sophomore Chase Lower started the play with a blocked shot on the defensive end that led to a fastbreak and the trey.
Stony Brook’s Tyler Stephenson-Moore hit a tough runner in the lane to put the visitor back in front, but Lowe made another big defensive play. He picked up a loose ball and raced the other way for a lay-up to give W&M a 59-58 lead with 43.2 seconds remaining.
On the ensuing Stony Brook (9-8, 2-2 CAA) possession, Aaron Clarke knocked down a right wing 3-pointer with 25 seconds left to give the Seawolves the lead for good.
Houpt led the Tribe with 17 points on 5-of-6 from 3-point range, while Caleb Dorsey notched his second-straight double-double with 14 points and 12 rebounds. Lowe rounded out the Tribe’s double-digit scorers with 13 points to go with six rebounds.
The Tribe knocked down seven of its 10 3-pointers in the second half, but finished the contest shooting just 34.5%. On the other side, SBU shot 43.8% on the day and was 18-of-21 (85.7%) from the free throw line.
Stony Brook opened up a double-digit lead midway through the first half as the Tribe missed 12 of its first 13 shots.
A Dean Noll 3-point play pushed the margin to 20-9 at the 5:13 mark. The Seawolves advantage reached its largest at 27-14 on a Chris Maidoh lay-up with just under three minutes remaining in the half.
W&M scored five in a row to get within eight. Gabe Dorsey’s right wing 3-pointer narrowed the gap to 27-19 at the 1:46 mark.
The Green and Gold drew within seven on a Lowe putback with 28 seconds left, but a pair of Stephenson-Moore free throws gave the visitor a 32-23 lead at the break.
Just over four minutes into the second half, the Stony Brook lead was 12, 44-32, following an Andre Snoddy fastbreak lay-up.
A personal 6-0 run by Caleb Dorsey closed the Tribe within 50-47 with 9:40 left. He knocked down a top of the key 3-pointer, before scoring three more the old-fashion way on a driving lay-up while getting fouled.
Noll led all scorers with 19 points, while Stephenson-Moore and Maidoh added 12 and 10 points, respectively, for the Seawolves.
Up Next
The Tribe returns to action when it hosts Campbell, which knocked off Hofstra on Saturday at home, on Thursday night. The game is slated for a 7 p.m. tip and will be streamed on FloHoops.
Tribe comeback comes up just short vs. Stony Brook
