Bears stumble in final 1:30 Stony Brook’s Munir saves his best for game’s last seconds

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ORONO – With a minute and a half left in Sunday afternoon’s America East basketball contest, D.J. Munir had put together a game to forget.

He was 1-for-10 from the floor. He had six points. And he had entered the game as Stony Brook’s biggest offensive threat.

In the final 1:28, he made up for it, and propelled the Seawolves to a 57-53 win over the University of Maine in front of 2,048 fans at Alfond Arena.

Munir slid off a pick, took advantage of botched Maine switch, and nailed a wide open 3-pointer from the top of the key to make it 54-53, and after Derrick Jackson’s miss on the other end, he ran the shot clock down and rattled in a contested 12-footer to account for the final margin.

“The critical part, I thought we fought back [from an eight-point deficit] very courageously and very well to take the lead, but then, as has happened several other times this year, we had a player not know what defense we were in,” Maine coach John Giannini. “That’s how they got a wide-open three with their best player.”

Giannini was frustrated by the regularity of the defensive lapses.

“I have no choice but to blame [captains] Derrick and Errick [Greene] for that, because they have to communicate to their often-confused teammates, what they’re doing, for a third and fourth time, or they just won’t know.”

Maine drops to 9-14, 6-6, while Stony Brook won just its fourth game of the year in 23 games. The Seawolves are 3-9 in conference play.

Stony Brook coach Nick Macarchuk said that after losing five straight games, it was nice to get a win.

“Excuse us if we don’t know what to say, but we’ve only won three games this year, so we haven’t been asked to talk too much,” Macarchuk said. “Usually when the game is over we just get on the bus and go home.”

Maine led 30-28 at the half, but wasn’t able to build that advantage to more than four points after intermission.

The Seawolves took control in the final 10 minutes and led 52-44 after Joakim Eriksson scored with 4:24 to go.

But Rickey White scored five straight points and Greene added two straight layups during a 9-0 run that put the Bears back on top – and set the stage for Munir’s 3-pointer.

Maine was led by Jackson, who scored 13 points, and White, who scored 11, including a spectacular one-handed alley-oop jam off a Jackson feed in the first half. Justin Rowe, Maine’s 7-foot center, was plagued by foul trouble and finished with five points, four rebounds and four blocks. The Bears’ leading scorer – Greene – scored six and handed out five assists.

Jackson blamed himself for Munir’s last shot.

“I guess that’s a good shot on his part,” Jackson said of the hoop. Jackson shadowed Munir on his drive to the hoop, and had him well-guarded on the shot. “I blame myself for that whole thing. Me being the person that I am, the competitor that I am, the only thing I’m gonna accept his him not making that shot.”

Munir said Jackson did everything he could on the play.

“I got the roll. I was wishing that one in,” Munir said. “I was trying to draw a foul, but he didn’t bite on the head fake.”

The Seawolves got 18 points from JonPaul Kobryn, 12 from Eriksson and 11 points and six steals from Munir.

SEAWOLVES 57, BLACK BEARS 53

Stony Brook (4-19) Maine (9-14)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Eriksson 4 6 3 4 12 Tibbetts 1 3

Konopka 0 2 2 2 2 Campbell 0 3

Kobryn 7 12 4 4 18 Rowe 2 7 5

Munir 3 12 4 4 11 Jackson 5 10 13

Spitler 2 3 0 0 4 Greene 3 10 6

Church 0 1 1 2 1 Petkus 1 1 3

Orfini 0 2 0 0 0 Flavin 1 2 3

McCollum 3 7 1 1 7 Brown 3 8 6

Bennett 1 3 0 0 2 White 3 5 11

Totals 20 48 15 17 57 Totals 19 50 10 53

Stony Brook 28 57

Maine 30 53

3-pt. goals: Stony Brook (2-6): Eriksson 1-1, Munir 1-4, Orfini 0-1; Maine (7-17): Tibbetts 1-3, Campbell 0-3, Jackson 3-5, Greene 0-1, Petkus 1-1, Brown 0-2, White 2-2

Attendance: 2,048