AMHERST, Mass. - Junior guards Anthony Jackson and Dave Coley both scored 20 points, and the Stony Brook men's basketball team held UMass to season-low point total as the No. 7 seed Seawolves upset the No. 2 seed Minutemen, 71-58, in the first round of the National Invitation Tournament (NIT), Wednesday night at the Mullins Center. The victory is Stony Brook's first-ever national postseason win.
The win is America East's third-ever NIT victory and first since 1987. It's the league's 13th postseason win overall.
Stony Brook (25-7), which leads the nation in true road wins with 13, advances to play No. 3 seed Iowa Friday night in Iowa City, Iowa at 9:30 p.m. EDT in a nationally televised game on ESPNU.
The Seawolves, who have a school-record 25 wins, the most by an America East team since Vermont had 25 in the 2004-05 season, trailed 25-21 with 7:06 left in the first half, but held UMass scoreless the rest of the frame and used a 17-0 run to turn the deficit into a 13-point halftime lead.
The Minutemen hung tough in the second half, getting as close as six, a little more than midway through the from, but Jackson canned a 15-foot jumper with just under eight minutes left to make SBU's lead 59-51. Coley then drained a three with 2:15 left to put the Seawolves up 11, which proved to be the winning margin.
Coley was 8-for-15 from the field and 3-for-3 from the free throw line to finish with 20. He had a career-high five steals. Jackson was 8-for-10 from the floor and 4-for-5 from three-point range for 20 points. Freshman Jameel Warney (Plainfield, N.J.) was 8-for-16 to score 16 points, and senior Tommy Brenton had six points, six rebounds, seven assists and four steals.
Information from Stony Brook Athletic Communications was used in this report.