Instead of dancing in the NCAA Tournament, America East regular-season champion Boston University will instead be singing the blues on Babcock Street all the way to the National Invitational Tournament for the second year in a row.
Eighth-seeded Stony Brook University (10-19, 5-13 America East) rode a 54 percent (25-46) shooting effort from the field to stun top-seeded BU 62-58 at Walter Brown Arena in the quarterfinals of the America East Tournament Saturday.
Down 60-58 with 9.5 seconds remaining, the Terriers (23-5, 17-1) had a chance to tie it up after D.J. Munir (14 points) missed the front end of a one-and-one and BU sophomore Shaun Wynn (11 point, six assists) grabbed the rebound.
BU junior Chaz Carr raced up with the ball, but was stripped by Stony Brook’s Bob Santiago with three seconds to play. Santiago passed the ball up to teammate Mitchell Beauford (11 points), who dunked it as time expired.
The play was not without a share of controversy, however. BU senior Kevin Fitzgerald planted himself in front of the referee on the left sideline and frantically started calling timeout with seven seconds to play as Carr dribbled up court. The referee acknowledged that Fitzgerald called timeout, but failed to grant it and seemed to incorrectly tell Fitzgerald that he had to have the ball to call timeout.
“I had intended to call timeout,” said BU coach Dennis Wolff. “But Chaz looked like he had a head of steam coming down the court and it looked like we had numbers.”
Wolff wouldn’t provide any excuses for his team after the game and instead heaped praise on Stony Brook, which became the second eight seed in the 25 years of the tournament to knock off a top seed. The only other time was in 1988 when the University of New Hampshire knocked off top-seeded Siena University.
“I told our players that to beat BU we had to play a perfect game,” said Stony Brook coach Nick Macarchuk. “We have been very good at playing one half and not playing the second half for most of our games this year. Today, we played a perfect game. We sustained our effort and sustained our defense.”
“They played a terrific game,” Wolff said. “They deserved to win the game. They outplayed us for much of the game.”
The statistics show that the Terriers didn’t come out and put up a stinker, even though their two first-team all-conference selections (Jason Grochowalski and Carr) combined for only one point in the first half on a Grochowalski free throw. They shot 45.3 percent (24-53) from the field for the game, including 11-22 in the second half. BU also had 17 assists and committed only 10 turnovers for the game.
With each team grabbing 28 rebounds, the only real difference-maker in the game was that the Seawolves had 38 points in the paint compared to BU’s 24. Cori Spencer did most of the Stony Brook work inside, finishing with a game-high 15 points.
“It’s all a blur to me right now,” Wolff said. “I think they made some tough shots. They seemed to be able to get tough shots when they needed it. We couldn’t get a stop when we needed it.”
The game was a back-and-forth battle throughout. The largest lead for either team came when Stony Brook started the second half on an 8-3 run and took a 38-33 lead with 15:44 to play on a Beauford layup in transition.
The Terriers found themselves back ahead, however, with 3:22 to play when Carr followed up a three-pointer from the wing with a free throw on the next possession to put BU up 56-53.
Stony Brook answered with a layup from Spencer and then Beauford stole the ball from Fitzgerald with 1:34 remaining. Fitzgerald was called for an intentional foul after grabbing Beauford from the ground to prevent an easy layup. After Beauford made one free throw to tie the game at 56, the Seawolves got the ball and Spencer drove baseline for a layup over multiple BU defenders.
The Terriers answered with a lay-in by Bell to tie the game for the last time at 58 with 58 seconds left. Munir then drove baseline, knocking Bell to the floor as he layed it in to give the Seawolves a 60-58 lead.
The Seawolves had three fouls to give before they would send BU to the line, and they used two of them in the next 15 seconds. BU senior Matt Turner broke free with 11 seconds left but missed a three-pointer in the corner. Carr jumped up to get the rebound, but knocked it out of bounds, giving the ball to Stony Brook and setting up a BU foul and Munir’s free throws.
The loss put a damper on what should still be considered one of the most successful seasons of basketball ever put together by the Terriers. They went on separate 11- and 12-game winning streaks and won 23 of their last 25 games. They also earned one of the toughest wins in BU history by defeating the University of Michigan 61-60 in Ann Arbor, Mich. on Dec. 30.
All of the regular-season success will surely mean a spot in the 40-team NIT for Wolff’s squad. Last season, BU lost in the championship game of the America East Tournament to the University of Vermont and was invited to the NIT, where they lost 62-57 at St. John’s University in the opening round.
“I’m very disappointed for our kids,” Wolff said. “Hopefully, this won’t be the end of the season for us.”