By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
Elon played two similar men’s basketball games last week with different results at Schar Center.
The first one worked out fine before a sour ending Saturday afternoon.
Stony Brook finished the game on a 7-2 run for a 72-68 victory in the Coastal Athletic Association in a matchup moved up seven hours because of the winter storm striking the region.
The result came two days after Elon’s riveting comeback to defeat William & Mary.
That leaves the Phoenix with a 13-10 overall record and 5-5 CAA mark before Thursday night’s game at Hampton. Elon is home at noon next Saturday vs. Drexel.
“For us to play our best basketball, it has got to be first and second half,” Elon guard Ja’Juan Carr said. “We got to have that mindset from the jump.”
Chandler Cuthrell scored 17 points and Carr and Bryson Cokley each added 11 points for Elon, which couldn’t overcome rebounding troubles at the defensive end.
“Late in the game, two things kill you – turnovers and allowing offensive rebounds,” coach Billy Taylor said.
With CAA commissioner Joe D’Antonio in attendance on a snowy day, Stony Brook (14-9, 6-4) won its fifth game in a row. Elon’s would-be late-game defensive stops didn’t pan out when the Seawolves corralled offensive rebounds.
“It is a little frustrating when we don’t secure the rebound because we work on that each and every single day in practice,” Cuthrell said.
It didn’t help that forward Kacper Klaczek missed his third game in a row, sitting on the bench with a walking boot on his right foot.
Still, Cokley’s two free throws put Elon ahead 66-65 before Rob Brown’s 3-pointer with 1:52 to go following a Stony Brook offensive board. Ned Hull’s nifty reverse lay-in on the next possession evened the score for the Phoenix.
Elon got the ball back courtesy of Isaac Harrell’s blocked shot before Cokley missed. The Seawolves secured the rebound and were called for an offensive foul, but the call was reserved after replay review. Quin Gorman sank two foul shots with 40.9 seconds left.
An Elon turnover and a pair of Erik Pratt free throws secured the outcome for Stony Brook. Pratt is his team’s leading scorer, but he shot 1-for-16 from the field.
Taylor said Elon’s 13 offensive rebounds only resulting in four second-chance points was troublesome.
“We normally convert those,” he said.
Elon trailed by as many as 15 before going to the half with a 48-36 deficit. The Seawolves shot 9-for-16 from beyond the arc in the half.
“We started playing with more toughness, more energy in the second half,” Cuthrell said.
With Stony Brook going about five minutes without a point, Elon was within 54-48. The Phoenix chipped away on Carr’s fastbreak bucket and Cuthrell’s three-point play before going up 58-57 on Cuthrell’s two foul shots.
Stony Brook drained eight 3-point shots in the first 15 minutes to account for a majority of its points in taking a 40-30 lead. By game’s end, the Seawolves outscored Elon 39-21 from beyond the 3-point arc.
“We just don’t want to be in that position where we’re down by 15 points,” Taylor said.
A rewarding rally
Elon’s comeback Thursday night against William & Mary produced a 79-76 victory with a special performance from Hull, a redshirt sophomore who tallied a career-best 14 points in front of a season-high home crowd of 1,815.
“That’s a huge character win,” Taylor said. “Played with a hunger and a desire.”
Hull, a third-year guard in his 40th career game, produced a double-figure total for the first time.
“You could tell his team needed him and he was ready to step up,” Taylor said. “… We tend to play and operate with a next-man-up mentality and we really saw that.”
Hull proved ready, logging 30 minutes off the bench.
“Just a lot of work I’ve put in to get to this moment,” he said. “That’s going to show eventually, so no pressure.”
Cuthrell’s 18 points led the Phoenix, while Cokley (14 points), Harrell (13), and Randall Pettus II (12) were key contributors.
“Whatever teams try to do to him, he always finds a way to get his 18 to 22 points,” Taylor said.
The Phoenix trailed for more than 28 consecutive minutes before Carr’s basket with 4:36 left provided a 71-70 lead. Cokley later regained the lead for Elon on a fastbreak basket.
William & Mary’s only points in the last 3:20 came on Kyle Pulliam’s bucket at the 1:13 mark.
“We can win close games, we’re a really good basketball team,” Hull said. “We stay locked in for 40 minutes.”
William & Mary had a 16-0 run before the midway mark of the first half to build a 12-point lead. Elon closed to within 44-37 by halftime.
