March 8, 2008

Box Score

Vestal, N.Y. - Daryl Proctor led four Maryland-Baltimore County players in double-figures with 16 points as the Retrievers defeated the Stony Brook University men's basketball team, 76-60, on Saturday afternoon in America East quarterfinal action.

"We battled as we have all year," Stony Brook head coach Steve Pikiell said. "We just couldn't make enough stops on the defensive end today."

Senior Ricky Lucas (Herndon, Va.) led Stony Brook with a game-high 18 points and team-best eight rebounds in his final game as a collegian. Senior Emanuel Neto (Luanda, Angola) added 13 points and five boards for the Seawolves who were held to 35.4 percent shooting.

Freshman Chris Martin (Springfield Gardens, N.Y.) got the Seawolves off to a quick start, scoring the first five points of the contest on two free throws and a three-pointer. Jay Greene got UMBC on the board with a long three but Lucas answered on the other end with a three to extend the Seawolves lead back to five. The top-seeded Retrievers responded with an 18-2 run, highlighted by three-pointers from Greene, Ray Barbosa and Matt Spadafora to take their largest lead of the game at 21-10 with 12:41 to go in the half.

SBU (7-23) would close within seven at 25-18 on six straight points from sophomore Rio Pitt (Amityville, N.Y.) but the Retrievers responded by scoring six of the next eight points to push its lead back to 11. Another long Greene three minutes later put UMBC up 14 before an old-fashioned three-point play from Neto made it an 11-point game. The Retrievers once again had an answer though, building its lead to as much as 16 before heading into the break up 44-29.

Lucas paced the Seawolves with 10 first-half points while the Retrievers were led by Spadafora's 10 which included three of UMBC's nine first-half three-pointers.

The teams traded hoops early in the second half before a three from Brian Hodges with 14:52 left extended the Retrievers lead back to 16 and forced a Stony Brook timeout. The Seawolves cut the lead to 13 midway through the period on a floater from sophomore Eddie Castellanos (Hoboken, N.J.) but Johnson came back on the other end with an old-fashioned three-point play to push the advantage back to 16.

Barbosa then converted on another three-point play to make it 61-42 with just under nine minutes remaining. SBU would close within 14 on a technical free throw from Lucas and a turnaround jumper from Neto with 4:05 left, but that is as close as the Seawolves would get as Johnson dunked on the other end and the Retrievers went on to the 16-point victory.