Sports

Seawolves enjoy huge homecourt edge

Pritchard Gymnasium isn’t exactly one of the top on-campus college basketball facilities in the country, but to Stony Brook, it’s Cameron Indoor Stadium, Allen Fieldhouse and Rupp Arena all rolled into one.

The Seawolves won their 14th straight America East Conference contest Saturday, knocking off Maine 79-69 before a fourth straight sellout crowd of 1,630 to improve to 15-5 — the program’s best start since moving to Division I in 1999.

“Guys like playing here, the place has been sold out for two weeks and students aren’t even back,” Stony Brook coach Steve Pikiell said. “We play with good energy [here]. We shoot in the gym every day, summertime until now.”

Junior forward Eric McAllister scored a career-high 22 points, Tommy Brenton notched a triple-double — Stony Brook’s first in its Division I history — of 15 points, 14 rebounds and 11 assists, along with three steals, and Brooklyn product Dave Coley tallied 13 points and six rebounds.

Stony Brook (15-5, 6-1) moved back into Pritchard prior to the 2008-09 season, while the larger Stony Brook Arena is being renovated; after a few stops and starts, it is expected to be ready by the 2014-15 season. But Pikiell’s club may not want to ever go back, what with the way it has performed at Pritchard, going 45-16 in the cozy gym, where hundreds of noisy, red-clad fans are right on top of the action on the narrow court.

“The whole team feeds off the crowd, feeds off the band,” Brenton said. “Having a home court advantage is huge for us, playing where we practice [with the] same rims, same balls.”

Stony Brook has been dominant in conference play, wherever the games are held. It has won 24 of its last 28 games, and improved to an America East-leading 6-1 with the victory, a half-game ahead of bitter rival Vermont and Albany.

The Seawolves didn’t have much of a problem with Maine, racing out to leads of 13-5, 25-12 and 31-22 by halftime. Stony Brook scored the first nine points of the second half to extend its lead to 18 and was never seriously threatened. Enjoying the finest scoring output of his career, McAllister supplied the afternoon’s biggest highlights, flying in for a two-handed dunk and acrobatically laying in a reverse alley-oop on back-to-back plays.

“When he plays at that level, he brings us a different dimension,” Pikiell said. “He’s been awesome in practice. He’s been dominating in practice, the way he played today is how he’s been practicing.”

Despite all of its success, which includes two of the last three America East regular-season crowns, Stony Brook is still looking for its first Division I NCAA Tournament berth.

Ensuring home-court advantage by winning the conference would be significant. The next few weeks will go a long way toward that goal, as Stony Brook embarks on a three-game road trip, visiting second-place Albany, New Hampshire and Hartford before returning home to host Vermont, which handed the Seawolves their only league loss.