LOWELL, Mass. – Graduate student Christian Lutete (Silver Spring, Md.) totaled 27 points in an 84-76 setback for the UMass Lowell men's basketball team (8-14, 2-5 AE) against Stony Brook (14-8, 5-2 AE) on Wednesday evening.
 
"It was a tough loss for us tonight, but I thought it was a really good college basketball game," said Head Coach Pat Duquette. "Stony Brook is a very good team. I think they're the most athletic team in our league and I have a lot of respect for Geno Ford. For us to play them as tight as we did and to come back on two or three occasions is a great sign. I think we played a lot better tonight than we did the previous two games. We just don't have enough depth, our margin for error is so thin, so it's been a tough stretch for us."
 
Lutete converted on 11 free throws in a game that saw 12 lead changes. Junior Obadiah Noel (Frederick, Md.) added 20 points on the night with a team-best nine rebounds, while freshman Connor Withers (Manassas, Va.) rounded out the double-digit scorers with 14.
 
Although the Seawolves scored the first bucket of the night, the River Hawk offense was quick to attack, using a 19-5 run that was capped off by a great pass from Noel to graduate student Josh Gantz (Grove City, Ohio), to give the home team an early, double-digit margin at 19-7 with 13:23 remaining in the first half.
 
SBU responded with an 11-2 spurt of their own to make it a one-possession game, but Withers drove through traffic to the hoop for two and Lutete followed with a triple to give the River Hawks a 26-20 edge at 7:56. The runs continued, as the visitors scored the next seven straight points to pull in front, and even though Lutete answered with six in a row on his own, Stony Brook outscored its host 12-4 in the waning minutes to take a slight, 39-36 advantage into the break.
 
The River Hawks registered seven of the first 10 points in the second half to take a one-point margin. Both sides battled, though, with two lead changes before SBU tallied 13 consecutive points to build its largest buffer, 58-48, with 8:30 still to go.
 
Lutete snapped six minutes of silence for the home team with an and-1 to help the squad begin its march back. Two minutes later, Noel finished a three-point play of his own and Withers knocked down a long ball to knot the score, 61-61, at 5:30. Freshman Ron Mitchell (Philadelphia, Pa.) followed at the line, giving the team its final lead of the night, but back-to-back threes allowed SBU the breathing room needed to keep the upper hand in the final minutes.
 
Stony Brook now leads the all-time series against UMass Lowell, 16-5. The River Hawks will wrap up the week and the first half of the conference slate against New Hampshire on Saturday, February 1 at 5:30 p.m.